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In an emergency, make contact by street light? It's true, and it may be quite effective as well.
On the streets of São Luís in Maranhão, the public can speak directly to the police through intercoms installed on poles.
Early morning in São Luís. A man crosses the street, approaches a bush, hides and suddenly, with a rapid movement, takes a gun and puts it in his waistband.
In less than ten minutes, the police arrive and arrest the guy, who was already wanted.
An argument at the beachfront. And, suddenly, a man charges towards a group of women with a knife.
One of them is stabbed and falls. Her friend becomes distraught.
Fortunately, the stabbed woman escaped with her life. The man was later arrested for attempted ***.
Flagrant acts like these have been recorded more and more often in São Luís since equipment like this here was installed in the city: up there, there is a camera and, down here, a type of intercom.
When people need help from the police, all they have to do is press this button
and they are instantly connected with a military police attendant, who can observe everything that happens.
One hundred cameras with intercoms have been installed in Maranhão's capital
Another two hundred will be installed in the coming year.
The majority are placed in high-crime areas.
"In case of emergency, press the button installed on the pole and speak directly to the police."
Here, an unlicensed parking attendant claims being threatened by a colleague in a dispute over territory.
"I'd like you to send a patrol car to see this here."
In this other image, the cameras have been activated for rapid response to a serious traffic accident,
but two people died instantly.
And when this fight broke out, the police were called immediately, and those involved were arrested.
The system has reduced the response time for incidents
It used to take the police around 15 minutes to reach the scene of a crime.
Now, according to the control centre, they arrive within 3 minutes, on average.
"We've caught murderers and other various types of criminals after they were observed by video operators here."
"People feel safer. We just have to press the button and the closest patrol car comes to us."