The government of Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that the Military Police of São Paulo (PM-SP) prioritize the use of body cameras in major operations. In a statement on Wednesday (18) to the president of the court, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, the governor stated that the judge’s decision, if interpreted in a way that makes the use of equipment mandatory in all police operations, will lead to a clear material and operational impossibility of compliance.
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Scope of the Term
The São Paulo administration argues that the term police operation has a broad scope and is defined in PM regulations. To understand the scope of the term, as of 30 November, more than 484,000 police-military operations were carried out in 2024 in the state of São Paulo. In November, more than 43,000 police operations were carried out, the government stated.
Operation Summer
In an attempt to convince Barroso to restrict the scope of his decision, the Tarcísio administration cites as an example Operation Summer, which has been carried out in the Baixada Santista region for over 40 years. The text from the São Paulo government, however, does not mention that this year’s edition of Summer resulted in 56 deaths by police officers. It is the deadliest action by the São Paulo police since the Carandiru massacre in 1992. According to the document sent to the Supreme Court, the Summer Operation aims to increase the perception of security and, due to its preventive nature, suggests a scenario with a lower propensity for confrontations. This year, the number of officers deployed will be 3,338, including 303 firefighters.
Mandatory Use of Cameras
In early December, the president of the Supreme Court determined the mandatory use of body cameras by police officers in the state of São Paulo. Barroso complied with the request of the state’s Public Defender’s Office and went further: he decided to maintain the current model of uninterrupted recording of the devices, and their automatic activation, according to the system implemented by the government of João Doria (no party).
Number of Cameras
According to the government of the state of São Paulo, the state has around 80,000 PMs (in all shifts), but only 10,125 recording devices — and only half of them are used at a time, while the other half undergo battery recharges and updates.
New Cameras
According to a technical note produced by the Center for Violence Studies at the University of São Paulo (NEV/USP), the contract signed between the government of São Paulo and the technology company Motorola for the acquisition of new body cameras for the Military Police does not comply with the determination of Minister Luis Roberto Barroso of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The USP document states that, in the new protocol established in the notice, unlike what currently occurs, there is no uninterrupted video capture, but only intentional recording. In practice, if the police officer chooses not to activate the camera, there will be no record of the occurrences.
Access to Images
The Public Defender’s Office highlighted that, for analysis purposes, it requested access to images from the portable operational cameras of military police officers in 457 incidents that raised suspicions of abuse or irregularities. However, there was no response to 221 requests, which corresponds to 48.3% of the cases. This data highlights the difficulty in obtaining recordings of the approaches. Among the 236 responses received, in only 100 cases it was possible to conduct an analysis based on the evidence provided, assessing the conduct of the agents at the time of the police approach. Among these 100 cases analyzed, it was found that, in 36% of the incidents, the sound was not activated by the security agent during the approach, which compromises transparency and makes it difficult to fully assess the police actions.
Analysis:
Recent cases of disproportionate violence involving the São Paulo Military Police (PM-SP) have led to the Supreme Federal Court’s (STF) decision mandating the mandatory and continuous use of body cameras. However, the resistance from the state government to this measure raises questions about the government’s true commitment to reducing violence and holding agents accountable for misconduct. The state government argues that the broad scope of the term “police operation” makes it unfeasible to record all police actions, given the large number of operations carried out annually in the state. However, the justification to prioritize certain operations should not be used as an excuse to exclude monitoring of everyday actions, which often result in abuses against the population, particularly in poor areas.
The recent change in the contract with Motorola, which only requires recordings to be made when activated by the officers, represents a significant setback. This alteration undermines the original purpose of body cameras, which is to ensure continuous recording without the possibility of manipulation or omission of footage. Intentional recording opens gaps for concealing abuse and undermines transparency, making it more difficult to hold security agents accountable and compromising the effectiveness of the monitoring system. In a context of already elevated police violence, this change becomes a risk factor, as it removes the impartiality that continuous recording offers, allowing for potential distortions in the accounts of confrontations.
Sources: O Globo; A Folha de SP; Agência Brasil.
