Conversation with Sergio Carrera Neto
Sérgio Carrera Neto
Police Lieutenant-Colonel, PhD Candidate, UN Veteran, Consultant, author.
Posted by Embassador Vusi Mavimbela (Republic of South Africa) on his facebook account (link bellow):
"Sergio is a Brazilian senior police officer with over 26 years of experience, both domestically and internationally, and has a passion for studying law enforcement affairs. He is a PHD Candidate in Education and is the author of several books and articles. His latest book is entitled ‘Policing Models Around The World” and is published in 2023. Recently I invited him out to lunch – to hear his perspective about my observations concerning two aspects of law enforcement and crime in Brazil.
The first observation is that, in my time in Brazil, I have hardly heard or read about the phenomenon of cash-in-transit (CIT). The second one is what I see as the paucity of traffic cops on the roads.
These two aspects happen to be among the top traumas that impact the public psyche of all South Africans. For decades now, CIT has been the most public, brazen and violent crime that hogs the public and social media. Law enforcement agencies have found it hard to keep pace with the violent nature, the frequency and the geographic spread of this phenomenon. Assaulting gangs have become larger, better armed and more technically adept in their execution.
Incidentally, a few weeks ago, on 9 October 2023, the ENCA social media account carried a headline that said, “CIT Authorities to look to Brazil for help”. It further stated that “cash-in-transit officials will be looking to Brazil to discuss possible ways to reduce the recent spike in the industry. There have been 249 heists in 2023. This is a 30-percent increase compared to 2023”.
On the other hand, every motorist or driver can relate many episodes about the psychological and humiliating trauma of being flagged down by traffic cops whose primary mission is not to uphold and enforce the law, but to break it by soliciting for bribes. They hide behind trees, under bridges and in the bushes to catch out their next victims for quick money, for a gift in kind including a bottle of whisky if it is available at hand. Others go to the extent of advising the motorist to drive to the nearest ATM to withdraw bribe money. The authorities that are supposed to enforce the integrity of the system seem to have resigned themselves, with gay abandon, to this ravaging cancer – a cancer that has become symptomatic of the malaise that infects every level and every aspect of South African society.
Sergio was upfront in acknowledging that Brazil is also facing serious challenges of crime in several categories, especially organized fraud and armed gangs. He further stated that, in the aspect of armed gangs, South Africa is fast catching up to the notoriety of Brazil and Colombia. However, he also stated that there are other aspects where Brazil has done relatively well.
Sergio’s response to my observation on the two aspects is worth narrating because it has very compelling lessons for South Africa. Let me proceed to paraphrase him:
“To a very great extent, in Brazil we have phased out the use of cash in financial transactions. I have not carried cash in my pocket or in my wallet for many years. That applies to many people in Brazil. If you eliminate cash in transit, you eliminate CIT. Even the poorest of the poor in my country use what we call a Pix – a cashless payment system that uses your electronic device like a cell phone or laptop or computer. It is a payment system that is zero-taxed by the government in service of small transactions and poor people. All you need is either your cell phone number, your social security number called CPF, or even your email address to receive your payment electronically. Every Brazilian citizen has a cell phone number or social security number. Of course, those who can afford it also use credit cards or debit cards, and those are taxed by the state.
If you reverse your car out of a parking lot in a shopping mall, a car guard may approach you, if you tell him you don’t have cash to pay him, he will ask you to take out your phone and take a picture of his Pix number or his cell phone number and you can pay him when you get home. A hawker in the street always has his Pix number or mobile number displayed on the table of his stall. The buyer pays by switching on the cell phone, punching in the hawker’s Pix number or Cell phone number, and using either of the numbers to make a payment.
领英推荐
It gets even better Ambassador, you might be surprised that I have not carried my wallet for a long time now because all my financial transactions can be done using my cell phone. I buy my grocery, my food, my clothes, etc using my cell phone. I just swipe my cell phone against the payment terminal. My wallet has become virtually redundant, and as I am talking to you now, I don’t know where it is in my house.
In countries like Finland there are many people that have never handled cash in their lives. Brazil is far more advanced than the USA in using electronic financial transactions even for ordinary poor people. Per capita, we have far fewer Reias circulating in Brazilian society than there are Dollars among the people in the American society”.
{I told Sergio that I used to withdraw cash before a round of golf to pay my caddie. One day I forgot to withdraw the cash and I told the caddie to get into the car and we go to an ATM to withdraw his payment. He coolly advised me to take his cell phone number or his Pix number and pay him when I get home. I felt like I had just come from a very underdeveloped country with a very backward financial system}.
“Ambassador, I have been a police officer for more than 20 years, I cannot remember the last time I had to deal with theft or large scale robbery that involved cash. The moral of the story is that you will not have cases of CIT if you modernise and democratise your financial system at all levels of society. We have to embrace technology and it will go a long way in helping us combat crime.
On your second issue Ambassador, concerning the paucity of traffic cops on the road, there are factors to consider. In Brazil, we have invested in a very extensive and effective electronic and camera road system that is seamlessly linked to the penal payment system. It is almost impossible to rig or flout the traffic camera system and its payment regime. This system makes it possible to reduce the number of traffic cops on the road and therefore also reduce the possibility of bribery and corruption.
Secondly, we are at the last stage of phasing out the paper system where a traffic cop issues a paper ticket to the offending driver. Different states are now introducing body cameras to record everything in real time in the interaction between the cop and the motorist. In addition, cops carry cell phone-like devices which they use to record and issue fines electronically in a way that clocks directly into the motorist’s social security number. That also helps to reduce opportunity for corruption. Once the road camera clocks a traffic offense, it is made difficult to erase or reverse without having to explain at the central monitoring server why that had to happen. That also reduces corruption and the ability to manipulate the system.
Thirdly, every police officer in Brazil is also a traffic cop and vice versa. Although there are dedicated traffic officers, but they still have the authority to enforce law if they come across a crime unrelated to traffic offenses. Every police officer has the authority to record or issue a fine if there is a traffic offense. As I have already stated ambassador, we have virtually phased out the issuing of paper fine. For example, if you happen to park at a wrong spot or park inappropriately, cops no longer write on a piece of paper and clamp it with a wiper on the windscreen. If you happen to park on the same spot the whole day, you might end up with ten different electronic fines because every cop or police that passes by will take the electronic registration number of the car, and that will go immediately to the owner’s social security number as a traffic offense. Therefore, the length of time or number of hours the offense was committed might be captured in different police records at different times, which in turn informs the severity of the financial penalty.
Sergio, it would seem the Brazilian system is better in ensuring that more resources, including personnel resources, are released to fight crime in all its forms. It eliminates the resource wastage of multitudes of traffic cops whose primary task is to waylay motorists instead of being deployed in crime hotspots. Such a system also reduces opportunities for corruption and truancy. Your comments about how Brazil has eliminated CIT is instructive indeed.
Thank you."