Murders declining in São Paulo
Veja magazine #2039 published an article about the decline of murders in São Paulo.
Acording to the article, on December 7th 2007, in the city of São Paulo, there was not one single occurrence of murdering; it was the first time since the decade of the 1950s that the city lived such a peaceful day.
More good news: the statistics say that the criminality has been declining in the city and in the State of São Paulo. From 1999 to date, the number of murders reduced by 79% in the capital city and by 69% in the State. Today, in the State of São Paulo, there are 11 murders per year for each group of 100,000 inhabitants (in 1999, there were 36 - see graph below), which compare to 39 murders in Rio de Janeiro and 22 for Brazil. São Paulo is about to reach the ratio of 10 murders by 100,000 inhabitants, which, according to Veja, is considered acceptable by the World Health Organization.
Besides murders, the number of thefts and violent robberies has also been decreasing since 2000 (since 1994, the same Party, the Social Democrats, have been governing the State). Veja gives special credit to Infocrim, a system inspired in the New York Police, which automatically shares every criminal record among all Police Stations in the capital, and is now being extended to other cities.
By analysing the data provided by Infocrim, the Police can trace the areas and times with higher occurrence of crimes, and can act more methodically. In Capão Redondo, the most violent zone of São Paulo city, saw drops of 75% in criminality after the Police started watching the points considered focuses of crimes.
By using Intelligence (data crossing, phone interception, police infiltration), the Police managed also to take control of the prisons. Groups such as infamous PCC, which spread terror in the State in 2006, are now tamed, according to Secretary of Justice; and he also mentioned that the Government is investing in social actions, such as providing more medical and dental care, as well as health and birth control planning, to the population in the poorest areas of the city.