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From its origins in Europe, TETRA mobile communications technology has spread around the world. In South America, Richard Lambley recently visited a multi-agency public safety radio system which is required to meet some unique challenges In Brazil, one of the world’s fastest-developing economies, TETRA radio systems have been vigorously taking root. The state of Rio de Janeiro alone has two – a seven-site network run by the regional railway operator, Supervia, and a much larger system operated by the state’s department of telecommunications, DETEL. This network, shared by a long list of law-enforcement, public safety and rescue organizations, has a key role to play in Rio’s future. Over the next few years, a series of global events will place the city repeatedly in the world’s gaze, adding to the allure of its existing attractions – among them the white sand of the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, the cable-car ascent of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, and the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer which gazes down from the Corcovado mountain, and of course the annual Rio Carnival. In July, the city hosted the World Military Games. Next year will come the Earth Summit, a reprise of the Rio Eco’92 Summit 20 years on – and already 120 heads of state and presidents have confirmed their attendance. Then 2014 will bring the football World Cup, an opportunity for celebrating Brazil’s grand passion – and, as a warm-up, this will be preceded in 2013 by the FIFA Confederations Cup. On top of all that, in 2016 Rio de Janeiro will be the scene of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “This sequence of international big events helped us to put our hands in money and resource in order to do it the best way we can”, says Lieutenant-Colonel Fabio Cajueiro, co-ordinator for critical communications in the state’s public safety secretariat. “We had the opportunity to study and to develop the best solution that we can do. We see that other international games use the same system as we are using here – TETRA. Then we know that we are in the best way, because if people in China are using TETRA and in Europe you use TETRA too – London will be TETRA next year – then we have the feeling that we are in the correct way.” Network sharers Heading the list of users of SIRCE – the State Integrated Network for Critical Radiocommunications – are the military police of the State of Rio de Janeiro (PMERJ), whose white patrol cars can be seen all over the city. “Here we have a very special model”, explains Lt-Col Cajueiro quickly. “It’s not the same as in other countries. The military police here is not the police from the armed forces – it’s the part of the police department that patrols the streets. When you are in an emergency, maybe in Europe you call 112, or in the USA 911, but here you call 190. And then you go to the military police and the patrol goes to help you. “The other side is the civilian police department. It only begins to work after the crime. Here the model is divided.” “In the Pan American Games [in 2007], we learned that during these events many federal forces and other forces come here to help, and then you have to be able to give radios. And it’s not a little quantity! We plan for maybe 2000–3000 radios. Last week we heard that FIFA asks for 2000 radios during the soccer World Cup! “It’s not a surprise to us because we saw a situation something like this in the Pan-American games. We have to plan this.” On a darker note, he adds: “We joke between ourselves that if God was a Brazilian, he was born in Rio de Janeiro. But we have to plan thinking that all the terrorist peoples – people with problems – come here for the international games. We don’t expect it – but we have to plan for the worst scenario in order to be prepared for any kind of situation.” City crime Meanwhile, the police and other emergency services have their everyday jobs to do. Every tourist guidebook to Rio warns of the city’s pickpockets, bag-snatchers and muggers, but too often matters become far more serious. In the week after this writer’s visit, a woman judge with a reputation for fighting organized crime was ambushed and gunned down outside her home by masked assailants on motorcycles. In the shanty towns or favelas which sprawl up the steep hillsides around Rio, drugs gangs are commonly in charge. And they are not to be treated lightly. Law officers are liable to be met with AK-47 and M16 rifles, and with grenades, anti-personnel mines and rockets. In 18 years, they have seized 170?000 weapons, four times PMERJ’s own complement of arms.
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