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The fight against environmental crimes led by the Amazon region, a territory where irregularities such as mining and deforestation gain space, using a “satellite constellation” to help agents identify possible crimes ongoing.
The strategy consists of the use of various satellites that capture daily images of the territory, enabling the verification of changes in these areas and, consequently, lighting the corporation’s alert to places that demand more investigative attention.
According to Humberto Freire de Barros, director of Amazonia and Environment of the corporation, satellites monitor the region’s forest areas and send high resolution images daily, creating a database used even for crime prevention.
At first, the images are analyzed by Artificial Intelligence (IA), which, from their characteristics, can identify sites of deforestation, presence of illegal mining and eventual fire focuses.
With the analysis, AI creates daily alerts that show everyone to agents where it is necessary to concentrate their efforts.
The delegate details that the images provided by the satellites allow, for example, to identify places of shallow cut deforestation, when the wood is completely removed and selective cutting deforestation, when only a few nobler trees are removed.
It is also possible to identify when there is some prospector activity or deforestation due to mining. “Even golden dredges are identified by these images of satellites and fire outbreaks as well,” the delegate explained in an interview with Wake up metropolis This week.
According to Humberto, the tool is used from hiring a company that has this “satellite constellation” and stresses that it is also used by other organs, enabling alert sharing.
“There are partnerships of the Federal Police with public ministries, with justice, with secretariats of the environment, Ibama, Funai, ANM, several bodies already use this tool and also do their specific work based on these images of Project Brazil More. So there is an integration around these alerts so that we can curb what is happening in greater quantity,” he says.
Crime Prevention
The performance of the PF focused on environmental crimes has gained more breath from 2023, with the creation of an area within the corporation dedicated only to cases involving this type of crime.
According to Humberto, who runs the board, this year alone 60 inquiries have been opened to investigate criminal fires. Last year, this number was 141 investigations.
The delegate also emphasizes another focus of the performance of the Federal Police to curb environmental crimes, specifically the criminal fire, but in the area of prevention. He cites the creation of poles dedicated to the investigation to curb this type of offense.
According to him, these poles are spread across various states of the country and, in his assessment, the initiative was positive, even helping in the flagrant.
“In June, we installed these six poles, which are in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and in four states of the Amazon: Acre, Rondônia, Amazonas and Pará. And we have already dedicated teams from the Federal Police operating since June and that articulate with state forces to perform actions and triggering integrated investigations,” he said in the state Wake up metropolis.
