• Name: Programa de Comando Avançado – PCA (Brazil)
• Area of Application: Policing
• What kind of AI according to the project's official information: Big data and Machine Learning

• Goals: “Mapping the activities of criminal groups in the State of Ceará by collecting data on graffiti on buildings and walls using artificial intelligence.”

• How does it work according to the project's official information: “With a smartphone in their hands and with the PCA application open, the police officer will start registering the graffiti by entering relevant information about the characteristics found at the site. First, they will register with which criminal group that graffiti may be associated with. Then, they will include a description indicating where the graffiti was found, such as “on the wall of a house”, “on the facade of a business”. The next step is to activate the cell phone camera to photograph the inscriptions left by the criminals. Finally, the police officer will pin the exact location of the graffiti on the map, using the cell phone’s GPS, and thus complete the registration of the graffiti on the program. In real-time, information is transmitted to feed the Big Data system, called Odin, and may be accessed by the State Police intelligence agencies.” The same mobile application also integrates the databases of civil and criminal records on the State population, vehicle and driver data, biometric and facial recognition. The tool will subsidize the work of State Police intelligence agencies, forming a database with information that will be integrated into the State’s Public Security Big Data, Odin.”
  Data compiled in the “Pichação” function of PCA app will serve to build parameters for the performance of criminal groups in the State and to foster police strategies to combat crimes in these areas. “Police officers in the areas of investigation and intelligence will be able to see the data on a map and, thus, we will have an updated mapping with data from a certain criminal group in which area, neighborhood or community it is located. This is essential for intelligence actions both for investigations and also for the patrol itself to organize its personnel and understand which areas should be prioritized, ”says André Costa, Secretary of Public Security from the State of Ceara.

• Possible bias: Departures from the assumption that graffiti is an expression of “criminals”, therefore open space for all sorts of graffiti artists to be included in police records. Excessive and disproportional collection of data from stigmatized urban territories and increasing to the deployment of ostensive policing of vulnerable communities, already commonly subjected to police brutality.

• Public Institutions Involved: A partnership between the Secretariat of Public Security and Social Defense of the State of Ceará (SSPDS/CE) and the Signal and Image Applied Computing Laboratory (Lapisco, Laboratório de Processamento de Imagem, Sinais e Computação Aplicada), linked to the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Ceará (IFCE).

• Related links with further information:
  https://www.ceara.gov.br/2020/07/14/sspds-usa-inteligencia-artificial-para-aperfeicoar-o-mapeamento-de-grupos-criminosos-no-ceara-a-partir-de-pichacoes/