Blue security towers, with a camera system capable of detecting from motorcycles on sidewalks to bicycles on the wrong way, began to spread across noble regions of the capital of São Paulo, such as Higienópolis, Jardins and Faria Lima, forming a kind of private surveillance network. of public areas.
The equipment is being installed by Cosecurity, a startup linked to Grupo Haganá, and draws attention because of the color pattern and for being ostensibly fixed in front of the buildings, in the front garden or, when there is not enough setback, on the facade of the building.
The images captured by the cameras are analyzed by an artificial intelligence system, which compares them with data on the behavior of a particular street and gives alerts when something is out of the ordinary.
When the system issues an alert, operators analyze the images to check for crimes or breaches of security. In case of confirmation, the police are called or the images are stored to be passed on to the investigation later, according to Luciano Caruso, co-founder of the company and director general of Haganá,
“A car going the wrong way is an anomaly. It could be a traffic violation, or it could be a marginal action that is happening at that moment. A motorcycle on the sidewalk, a bicycle on the sidewalk. It could simply be a boy walking, going to school, or it could be what we have seen of robberies or thefts, in which the guy takes his cell phone and runs away.”
The alerts also trigger in situations such as unscheduled works, people lying on the sidewalk, crowding in front of the building, signs of physical aggression, among others, according to the company. The routine of negative and positive alerts is “teaching” artificial intelligence.
According to Caruso, the company has already installed 600 pieces of equipment in the city, and the company expects to double that number by the end of the year. In part, this market expansion is driven by the feeling of insecurity from the series of robberies carried out by fake motorcycle delivery men and cellphone thefts led by cyclists, mentioned by him.
Another reason is the monthly fee, from R$249 to R$599, much lower than hiring security guards, whose average salary in São Paulo this year is around R$2,000.
According to Selma Migliori, president of Abese (Brazilian Association of Electronic Security Systems Companies), the electronic security sector earned BRL 9.2 billion in 2021, a 14% growth over the previous year. In the city of São Paulo alone, there are about 2.4 million cameras
According to reserve colonel José Roberto Oliveira, the capital’s former secretary of Urban Security, the tendency for this market is to grow more and more, as is the case outside the country.
“This is a trend. If you go to Chinese cities, this already happens very often”, says Oliveira, who created City Cameras, a similar system. According to him, the participation of the private sector is necessary to pay for this type of surveillance, among other reasons because of the cost.
The city hall, reports the colonel, had only 75 surveillance cameras at a cost of R$300,000 per month. “On its own, the government has no capacity to maintain it on its own. It’s very expensive. The breakage rate is relatively high. What governments need is to prepare to have clouds to store it all.”
The São Paulo government also announced Detecta in 2014, which included the use of videos monitored by an analytical system, capable of warning the police of suspicious actions, such as someone entering a store wearing a helmet. This specificity of the system, however, was abandoned by the state for technical reasons.
Despite the greater efficiency of the system, there is a lack of regulation on the use of the images collected, emphasizes Oliveira. “I think it is necessary to create a standard, create some kind of control, which can guarantee everything that the LGPD [Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais] put. There’s no GDPR for security yet, but it’s always important to keep that in mind,” he said.
The contract signed between Cosecurity and customers, according to Caruso, authorizes the supply of images to police authorities. “So, you don’t need to consult the building manager, for example, and the crime doesn’t even have to be in that condominium”, he says.
The company passes on to the police not only videos of the place where the possible crime took place, but also of the path taken by the suspect before and after the act. The technology also makes it possible to search for information on license plates, for example, and through facial recognition of suspects involved in the action.
Although it is technically possible to store images of criminals operating in the region in the system, in order to compare them with passers-by on a street, this is not done precisely out of respect for the LGPD (General Data Protection Law), according to Caruso.
The lack of regulation of the use of information in this type of system also worries Daniel Edler, researcher at NEV (Núcleo de Estudos da Violência).
“There needs to be transparency in this data. They say they don’t, but how does civil society know they don’t? Who is verifying this? In the case of the police, I can use the Access to Information Act to verify, or a cooperation. But with a private company, I can’t do that”, he says.
Another concern is with public space.
For urbanist architect Adriana Levisky, advisor to AsBEA-SP (Brazilian Association of Architectural Firms), the implementation of standardized security posts in front of luxury buildings in São Paulo is yet another example of the isolated and selfish actions of contemporary societies.
“This affects me as much as a series of other extremely aggressive issues in the daily life of the city. We live in a very aggressive city. We have many references of urban aggressiveness. Promotion of individuality, lack of solidarity, neglect of common space. It is one more reference of the contemporary reality, that contemporary cities live”, he said.
According to Levisky, individualistic culture devalues collective space. “If it were well taken care of, it would certainly bring much more security to the city. Instead of being a space for no one, it would be a space for everyone.”
Sought, the City of São Paulo informed that the security posts placed in the private area of the building do not need authorization. “The City of São Paulo, through the Municipal Department of Sub-prefectures, informs that the posts in the images are in a private area, therefore outside the scope of municipal management”, says an excerpt from the note.
Standardization is part of the security strategy, says Caruso: “A unique visual identity shows that there is a security project there, organized by the residents of that street. they are working, if they are recording, and each one looking at its own perimeter and not at the actual street”, he said.
In order to place equipment or poles “on the sidewalk” it is necessary to apply through the CPPU (Commission for the Protection of Urban Landscape. of Urban Infrastructure). After the grant, the pole is installed”.
“The Secretariat points out that, in most cases, pole installations are not necessary, the cameras can even be placed in homes. As long as it is proven that it is to promote local public safety.”
The Secretary of State for Public Security, in turn, highlighted positive aspects of the Detecta system, which continues to operate even without the implementation of the analytical video, which was part of the original idea and which helped to give rise to the name of the system.
“This tool was one of the multiple functionalities of the system and was tested in several scenarios. However, the analytical system was not efficient in the tests carried out and, with the restructuring of the system, in 2016, this functionality was no longer used. impacted the efficiency of the system, as shown by the numbers, and generated savings in processing and financial resources”, concludes the note sent by the folder.
X-RAY – Cosecurity
Foundation: 2020
Revenue in 2021: BRL 2 million
Profit in 2021: BRL 200 thousand
Number of employees: 35
Mainly competitors:Aster, Tocvoz, WL Alarms
haganah
Foundation: 1997
Revenue in 2021: BRL 615 million
Profit in 2021: Not disclosed
Number of employees: 11 thousand
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