São Bernardo Grants Police Military Power to Issue Municipal Fines

The municipality of São Bernardo do Campo will expand its partnership with the Polícia Militar, giving the force authority to enforce the city’s Código de Posturas and issue fines for physical or social disorder. The new powers will allow officers to sanction abandoned buildings, illegal sound‑amplifying bars, street drug use and other infractions that currently fall only to the municipal government.

Mayor Marcelo Lima (Podemos) and the new military commander, Lt. Col. Leandro Verardino, discussed the proposal on 17 July and plan to submit the enabling bill to the city council in the first week of August. The measure is billed as an innovation for the state of São Paulo, aiming to reinforce security in a city that ranks second among Brazil’s safest midsized municipalities according to a MySide study.