Latam List – Rio de Janeiro’s government will install security cameras throughout the streets of Copacabana that use facial recognition and license plate detecting technology. The images will allow the Secretary of State for the Military Police Department, Rogério Figueredo de Lacerda, to identify people who have an arrest warrant or to check for stolen cars during Rio’s world-famous Carnival. Surely, this is an innovative way of using technology to tackle Brazil’s deepening insecurity and violence problems.
According to Mauro Fliess, the secretary’s spokesperson, Copacabana was chosen as one of the project’s pilot cities for its size as well as its abundance in tourists.
The project is a partnership between the Military and Civil Police Department, Detran, Rio de Janeiro City Hall, and local telecom network, Oi. The system will use software from Oi’s telephony company and the images will be transmitted directly to the Integrated Command and Control Center (CICC) in Cidade Nova. There, operators will check the information sent with the Civil Police data banks in the case of facial recognition, and it will do the same with Detran for the license plates.
Brazil intends to extend this project to other districts in the future. In the immediate future, Governador Island, in the north of Rio will be the next to implement a similar system.
Read more in EXAME.