Brazil to make federal law enforcement wear body cameras

The Brazilian Justice Ministry is preparing a plan for federal law enforcement agents across the country to wear body cameras. The measure will be implemented across the Federal Highway Police, the National Security Force, and guards in federal prisons.

The government will also offer financial incentives to states and municipalities that adopt body cameras for their military police and municipal guard forces, and is negotiating financial support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 

The Federal Highway Police moved toward the use of body cameras after a recommendation from the Sergipe state prosecutor’s office. In May last year, three officers in Sergipe killed a man with intellectual disabilities during a routine stop and search. The officers forced the man into a makeshift “gas chamber” in the trunk of their police van.

Police in the state of São Paulo began wearing cameras on their uniforms during the administration of former Governor João Doria. Studies show that deaths in clashes with the police have dropped by 80 percent since then. The only other state that has fully implemented the use of body cameras is Santa Catarina, but officers can choose when to switch them on. 

Other states have begun the process of doing the same (including some trials), but police forces resist the idea — alleging it may make officers wary of approaching suspects to avoid making mistakes that could lead to punishment. 

A study by think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas, which analyzed the body camera experiment in São Paulo, found no evidence to support that belief. “The number of arrests did not differ between the units that received the cameras and the others,” a February 2023 report found.

The government argues that the cameras prevent the use of unnecessary force and protect good officers from unjust accusations.

The first procurement processes to purchase the equipment will take place within five months.

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