São Paulo signs pacts letting prosecutors use Smart Sampa cameras against organized crime and to serve domestic-violence orders

São Paulo's city government and the São Paulo State Public Prosecutor's Office (MPSP) signed two technical cooperation agreements on October 27, bringing the city's Smart Sampa camera surveillance network into prosecutorial work: one for organized-crime investigations, the other for serving domestic-violence protective orders.

Organized crime: a 12-month agreement

The first agreement runs for 12 months, renewable, and allows the Special Action Group Against Organized Crime (Gaeco) to use Smart Sampa images and system data to support investigations, prevention and repression of organized crime. Gaeco prosecutor Luiz Fernando Bugiga Rebellato said at Tuesday's press conference that the system helps not only with identifying suspects but also with preventive policing, monitoring targets and planning operations.

Protective orders: five years, targeting the roughly 40% never found

The second agreement, run through the prosecutors' gender unit (CAOCrim), runs for 60 months, renewable. The MPSP will supply a database of people not yet notified of protective orders; when cameras match one of them, the Metropolitan Civil Guard (GCM) will go to the person and carry out the official notification. According to the MPSP, about 40% of protective-order targets are not found to be formally notified. Mayor Ricardo Nunes called the partnership an important step against crime and violence against women.

Background: 58,000 cameras and a recent data leak

City Hall says Smart Sampa has about 58,000 cameras, with roughly 20,000 more planned. The signings come while prosecutors investigate a recent exposure of Smart Sampa access credentials; the city says a user was removed and facial-recognition login is now required for all system users. The operator was also previously fined R$2.4 million for failures and faces 13 administrative proceedings.

One report noted that City Hall and prosecutors had already announced a similar protective-order notification cooperation in August 2026, covering more than 2,000 unnotified men, and that it remains to be clarified whether Tuesday's instrument expands that agreement, marks a new implementation stage, or is another administrative formalization.

Sources: Agência Brasil/EBC, O Bairrista, Nitro News Brasil, iBand, 27 October 2026.