Surveillance Cameras in Brazil: exclusion, mobility regulation, and the new meanings of security

Abstract

In Brazil, over the last few decades, projects for the installation of surveillance cameras for security purposes in spaces of public circulation have multiplied. However, the issue has not been specifically studied in the country. Research on surveillance cameras in Brazil has generally focused on cities and security. The debate on urban gentrification or private security has usually included the issue of CCTVs as a built-in element. The analysis presented here, based on data coming from research work carried out between 2002 and 2005, focuses on the installation of surveillance cameras in a public park in the central region of the city of São Paulo (Brazil). A multiplicity of discursive elements circulating in the country is analyzed, following an approach influenced by the work of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Based on this case study, it is possible to notice that cameras actually take part in a process of gentrification and are also related to new knowledge about security and its privatization. Cameras are also analyzed here as a part of the mechanisms of the functioning of power, and their contemporary changes.

Prisoners’ expectations of the national forensic DNA database: Surveillance and reconfiguration of individual rights

“…However, our interviewees felt more protected by the automation provided by technology, because of notions that their capacity for resistance and negotiation is strongly hierarchical and it is not possible for them to achieve success in that negotiation. Hence, automation transposes the power of decision and its political character to technology, perceived as neutral and effective, in a form of ''mechanical objectivity'' which ''serves as an alternative to personal trust'' [38] and enables the redefinition of the concept of security because it is no longer necessary to prepare defence or resistance strategies [39].…”

Fear, Security, and the Spread of CCTV in Brazilian Cities: Legislation, Debate, and the Market

“…This situation is described in studies by Kanashiro (2006aKanashiro ( , 2006bKanashiro ( , 2008, who undertook a historical survey of the subject of CCTV in Brazilian legislation and classified all the laws studied into three periods: 1982 to 1995-the use of cameras as a suggestion; 1995 to 2003-a period of restructuring when cameras became obligatory in certain institutions; and 2003 to 2005-a second period of restructuring when the issue was discussed as a requirement for international trade (major international capitalist institutions), personal and private security and survival. The picture described by Kanashiro in her various studies has not changed, and CCTV systems continue to be treated merely as security tools for technical fixes.…”

Videomonitoramento e seus efeitos na cidade: cartografia de redes sociotécnicas em diferentes espaços urbanos

“…No Brasil, o estudo de Kanashiro (2008), com base em textos legais e entrevistas realizadas com empresários e fornecedores do setor privado de segurança eletrônica, indica que a instalação de câmeras de vigilância em espaços públicos segue uma longa trajetória: (1) no período de 1982 a 1995, as câmeras surgiram como sugestão para diminuir o sentimento de medo e insegurança e o aumento da violência e do crime, pela ineficiência do Estado em prover segurança pública, destacandose a instalação de sistema de segurança em bancos; (2) cidade, no sentido de garantir a mobilidade mesmo diante de situações de emergência. Para o autor, os dois centros, pela organização em forma de rede e composição heterogênea, colocam em prática formas de governo à distância, com atuações que se distribuem entre vários atores em um exercício sutil de controle e intervenção apenas quando necessário.…”