WikiCrimes
WikiCrimes is a collaborative crime-mapping platform created in Brazil that allows citizens to anonymously report and search criminal events on a digital map.[^c1] Launched in late 2007 by computer scientist [[people/vasco-furtado|Vasco Furtado]] of the University of Fortaleza, the platform applied wiki-style collaborative technology to public safety, enabling anyone to contribute and access crime information. Its creators described it as "a project from the citizen to the citizen," distinct from any security institution.[^c4]
The platform emerged from frustration with the unavailability of official crime data in Brazil, which Furtado argued constituted a police monopoly on information fundamental to democracy.[^c2] By 2010, WikiCrimes had accumulated approximately 3,000 confirmed users and more than 100,000 visits from 156 countries, with most activity concentrated in Brazil.[^c3] The project generated multiple academic publications and led to spin-off platforms including a humanitarian crisis-mapping tool and a general-purpose collaborative map creator. A 2023 retrospective assessed the scientific, technological, and social lessons from fifteen years of the project.[^c5]
Subsequent platforms in Brazil have pursued crime data accessibility through different models. [[concepts/fogo-cruzado|Fogo Cruzado]], launched in 2016, collects and verifies armed violence data through open-source intelligence and community submissions, described as having effectively broken the state's monopoly on armed violence data.[^c6] In 2025, the institute developed an AI-powered audience research tool to study public attitudes toward police violence, conducting 28 in-depth qualitative interviews to identify effective messaging strategies ahead of the 2026 election.[^c17] [[concepts/crime-brasil|Crime Brasil]], an independent data journalism platform launched in 2024, aggregates official crime microdata from government sources and publishes it as open data, transforming raw government data into verified, contextualized information.[^c7] [[concepts/ott|OTT (Onde Tem Tiroteio)]], founded in 2016, reaches over 4.7 million people across social networks with real-time alerts about shootouts and police operations.
Official crime data in Brazil remains incomplete. According to the [[concepts/atlas-da-violencia|Atlas da Violência]] 2026, the country recorded 42,590 homicides in 2024, the lowest since 2014, but hidden homicides surged 88.6% to 7,083 cases, creating a growing statistical blind spot.[^c8][^c9] The federal government operates [[concepts/sinesp|SINESP]], a national public security information system that collects 28 standardized crime indicators across all 27 federation units, serving as the authoritative official counterpart to citizen-driven data platforms. Lethal violence nonetheless diverged by gender: intentional homicides fell to 32,914 in 2025, a rate of 15.4 per 100,000,[^c19] but femicides rose to 1,571 and deaths from police intervention climbed to 6,602, the highest on record,[^c24][^c25] and the first quarter of 2026 recorded 399 femicide victims — the most lethal first quarter for women since SINESP records began in 2015.[^c20][^c21] In 2026, AI startup [[companies/pax|Pax]] raised a $40 million seed round to build an intelligence platform for police investigations, marking the largest seed round ever for a Brazilian company and a significant commercial entrant into the public security data space.[^c10][^c11]
The legal and policy landscape for public security in Brazil has also evolved. In 2020, the Supreme Court's [[concepts/adpf-635|ADPF 635]] ruling restricted police operations in Rio de Janeiro's favelas, resulting in a 70% reduction in police killings and significant declines in broader violent crime.[^c12] The IACHR subsequently issued formal observations on Operation Contenção (October 2025), the deadliest police operation in Brazil's history, documenting structural failures in oversight and accountability. Investigations by police and prosecutors have revealed a network of illicit service providers connecting criminal factions, corrupt officials, and money laundering operations, a phenomenon of criminal convergence that the government's anti-crime strategy aims to disrupt.[^c18] In 2026, the federal government launched the [[concepts/brazil-against-organized-crime|Brazil Against Organized Crime]] program, a BRL 11 billion initiative described by the Ministry of Justice as a permanent national strategy to financially weaken criminal organizations.[^c13][^c14] It also created a [[concepts/national-organized-crime-database|national organized-crime database]] to trace connections between factions and militias across states[^c22] and sanctioned a national bank of good practices against violence against women.[^c23] The broader crisis of [[concepts/police-violence-in-brazil|police violence]] remained acute, with the proposed [[concepts/public-security-ministry-debate|Public Security Ministry]] stalled in the Senate along with the PEC da Segurança, as 30% of voters cited public security as the country's biggest problem ahead of the October 2026 election.[^c15][^c16]