Nunes installs "prison meter" in downtown São Paulo to display arrests made using facial recognition.
The 'Smart Sampa' system has already helped arrest 1.902 people and locate 41 missing persons, says the city hall.
247 - The City of São Paulo, under the administration of Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), installed this Tuesday (25) an LED panel in the city's historic center to display in real time the number of arrests made based on the Smart Sampa facial monitoring system. The "prisonometer", as it was called, was placed on Rua XV de Novembro and is 3 meters high, according with reporting from Valor Econômico.
The Smart Sampa system, which already has 23 cameras installed throughout the city, uses facial recognition technology to help identify criminals and missing persons. According to the city hall, the program has already enabled:
- The location of 720 convicted fugitives from justice;
- The arrest of 1.902 people caught in the act;
- The location of 41 missing persons.
Nunes also announced that he intends to expand the use of the cameras to identify vehicles with theft and robbery records, broadening the reach of the system.
On his social media, the mayor defended the measure with the phrase: "The only good criminal is a jailed criminal," an adaptation of the slogan used by former mayor Paulo Maluf — "The only good criminal is a dead criminal."
