The São Paulo Military Police met on the afternoon of Friday (14), in the state capital, with the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Luís Roberto Barroso, to present the operation of the New Body Cameras of the PM Paulista. The meeting took place at the Military Police Operations Center (Copom). 
According to the STF’s advisory, the state governor, Tarcisio de Freitas, sought to show that the current model of image storage, which keeps the information for three months, is very costly and compromises a budget that could be used to increase the number of cameras. Tarcisio also said that with the new technology, he would already be able to increase the number of equipment from 10,000 to 12 thousand and, in a short time, to 15 thousand.
At the end of the meeting, Barroso reported that the corporation’s commander-general, Colonel Cássio Araújo de Freitas, gave a presentation of the new camera model. “Explaining the reasons why the state understands that the uninterrupted recording model continues, but that the cost of storage was very high and that they are therefore introducing a new model with another technology.”
“It was extremely enlightening and now I did the notes, I will receive new information and from there we will decide,” added the president of the STF.
On December 9, 2024, Barroso ordered the obligation to use body cameras by PM Paulista. By this decision, the equipment should be able to record the action of the police uninterruptedly. He complied with a request from the São Paulo Public Defender’s Office.
In a new decision, of December 26, Barroso limited the obligation of cameras only to “large operations”, raids in vulnerable communities and operations triggered to respond to attacks against police. The minister acknowledged the allegation of the São Paulo government that he would not have enough cameras for the entire staff of the PM, which exceeds 80,000 agents. He ordered the equipment were intended for regions with greater police lethality.
Today, Colonel Cássio Araújo de Freitas said that the equipment used by the PM will be able to uninterruptedly record the action of the police. Also attending the meeting were Secretary of Public Security, Guilherme Derrite, and the president of the São Paulo Court of Justice, Judge Fernando Antonio Torres Garcia.
Uninterrupted recording
In September 2024, the SP government announced the signing of a contract with the company Motorola for the purchase of 12,000 body cameras. The new equipment was criticized because, by the rules of the notice, the activation of the recording could be done by the policeman himself or by a police operations center. Thus, the recording could be interrupted during operations.
The new model, provided for in the notice, different from what was in force, where the equipment was recording, without cuts, of the military action. In the contract it was not expected that the camera would make an uninterrupted recording, ie the police, or the corporation, could trigger the equipment when they wished – a point criticized by human rights entities.
According to the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP), this would be compensated for other features, such as automatic, software, distance from the PM Operations Center (Copom) and manual drive by the policeman himself.
The announcement is the subject of action of the Public Defender’s Office of the State of São Paulo, which is judged by Minister Barroso.
