Dozens of police influencers are running for office in Brazil
When he’s not chasing after criminals in São Paulo’s dangerous neighborhoods, police lieutenant Flavio Goncalves da Costa is busy discussing his risky operations on police-themed shows on YouTube.
The shows have turned Goncalves da Costa into a celebrity. Much of his content, which he posts under the name Tenente Bahía (Lieutenant Bahía) on Instagram to over half a million followers, is geared toward women, particularly mothers and caretakers who “feel they are taken care of by a policeman,” Goncalves da Costa told Rest of World.
He hopes they will throw their support behind him: Goncalves da Costa is running for city councillor in São Paulo, a city of 11.5 million people.
Goncalves da Costa is one of dozens of current and former police persons who are using their popularity on social media to get votes ahead of this weekend’s municipal elections in Brazil. There are more than 6,000 law enforcement officials on the ballots, and at least 45 of them have upwards of 10,000 followers on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. This growing trend has led to concern amongst security experts who warn that some officers share confidential information about special police operations, potentially damaging an already fragile relationship between police forces and vulnerable Brazilian communities.
“In areas dominated by criminals, the police presence is seen with fear and terror,” Roberto Uchôa, former police officer and a board member at the Brazilian Forum of Public Safety, told Rest of World. “Now we see a narrative being pushed by opportunistic police officers who glorify this [punitive] behavior” on social media.
