Rio’s Carnaval this year has Big Brother all over town watching what you do. The Secretariat of Public Security together with the Military Police and Department of Motor Vehicles (Detran) have gathered hundreds of cameras – 365 they say – to monitor the behavior of the revelers on the streets.
The main targets will be those who pee on the street as well as muggers and other violent characters. But drunks and people with expired car plates will also be observed with special attention and dealt with accordingly.
The so-called shock of order operation held by the Special Secretariat of Public Order (Seop) till 9 pm this Sunday had already arrested in one day alone 45 people for peeing in public, five of them were women. For the first time, several of the detainees were foreign tourists. There were a Mexican woman and some men: two Danish, one Italian, one British.
On Saturday, during the parade of the Bola Preta, 30 peeers were arrested, among them a woman. At the Banda de Ipanema show, 17 more were detained.
Since Friday 131 people have been taken to police stations and were booked for the crime of obscenity, Article 233 of the Brazilian Penal Code.
Four Detran cars with cameras able to read plates will be looking for people whose annual licensing hasn’t been renewed. The Operation Prohibition. on the other hand, will have 140 agents making sure that people who drink don’t get behind the wheel.
The Municipal Guard will have over 2,600 agents on the streets. The Military Police is putting 4.6% more men at work than in the 2009 Carnaval. About 7,000 of them will be guaranteeing that things don’t get out of hand.
In the Sambadrome alone there will be 847 MP agents on Monday and Tuesday when the Escolas de Samba (samba clubs) from the special group parade at the Marquês de Sapucaí avenue. which presents the main samba schools, the PM will have 847 men in the days of the Special Group. Another 600 men are being deployed around the Sambadrome.
A high-tech tower, which offers a panoramic view, will monitor the movement of revelers. The place comes with a night vision camera police say can shoot up to 2 km away (1.2 miles) and do the work of 18 officers.
Bought for US$ 450,000 from the American company ICx Tactical, which also has its towers being used by the US Customs at the US-Mexico border, the mobile tower was set up at a height of 9 meters (30 feet). The unit can be taken to any place security needs to be beefed up.
The tower is undergoing a test. Since Rio will be hosting both the World Cup and the Olympics law enforcement has been looking for ways to make the city more secure and they might acquire a few more Skywatches from ICx if they prove to be helpful.
