830,000 Phone Thefts Fuel Brazil Election Debate

Cellphone theft has become a prominent public-safety issue in Brazil’s presidential runoff campaign, even though reported thefts have declined since 2023. About 830,000 cases were registered last year, and the crime remains a major source of public anxiety; a viral dashcam video of creator Tabata Lenk being robbed in São Paulo underscored those concerns. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has raised prison sentences for theft involving electronics to as much as 10 years and introduced a device-registration and theft-reporting platform, while challenger Flávio Bolsonaro has proposed a minimum eight-year sentence. The candidates’ competing tough-on-crime pledges come as voters weigh broader concerns about security, despite a substantial fall in Brazil’s homicide rate over the past decade.