Sambodian Scenes: “Ad Hoc Secondary Market in Driver’s License Points”

A Detran-SP CNH (state driving license). Source: Jesus Me Chicoteia ("Whip me, Jebus"). The guy looks a lot like my brother-in-law.

Senha de delegado era usada em fraude no Detran-SP: The password of a senior traffic cop was used in a fraudulent scheme at the São Paulo DMV-equivalent in which points lost from drivers licenses due to infractions were transferred to innocent drivers.

In exchange for money, naturally.

A bar conversation interlocutor the other night was making just this point: People here are cynical about things like the new zero tolerance policy for driving under the influence, for example, because, as he put it bluntly, “the cops are for sale, and everybody knows it.”

A Corregedoria do Departamento Estadual de Trânsito de São Paulo (Detran-SP) investiga um esquema criminoso de transferência de pontuação das carteiras de motoristas multados para outras, de inocentes, cujos números de CNHs foram usados para abrigar os pontos.

The internal affairs department of the state traffic authority of São Paulo (Detran-SP) is investigating a criminal scheme in which point losses were transferred from the license of ticketed drivers to the licenses of other, innocent, drivers, whose drivers license numbers were used to store the point losses.

A transferência só foi possível porque foi usada a senha do delegado Adriano Rodrigues Alves Caleiro, então diretor da Circunscrição Regional de Trânsito (Ciretran) de Osasco e atual diretor da Divisão de Controle do Interior, responsável pela fiscalização de 334 Ciretrans em todo o Estado de São Paulo.

These transfers were only possible because the password of transit official Adriano Rodrigues Alves Caleiro, director of the Ciretran office in Osasco at the time and now director of the upstate traffic control division, responsible for overseeing 334 Ciretran offices throughout the state, was used.

O delegado, que solicitou afastamento do cargo até o esclarecimento do caso, afirma que sua senha foi usada indevidamente e disse que não tinha meios técnicos para, com agilidade necessária, controlar o histórico do uso de seu código pessoal.

The official, who took a leave until the case is resolved, says his password was used improperly and that there are no technical means available for him to audit the history of his personal logins with the agility needed [for the investigation? to monitor possible abuses? –Ed.]

“This sort of oversight is technically impossible”: You hear that a lot in certain cases (the blackout in the police radio network during the PM-PCC wars of 2006, for example).

It is kind of the flipside of the “rhetoric of the technological sublime” used by tech marketers, whereby all things are made possible by technology — possibly even eternal life.

A assessoria de imprensa do Detran-SP disse ser prematuro afirmar que o delegado está sendo investigado pela corregedoria. “O que está sendo apurado é o uso da senha nas operações, para que se tente verificar quem a utilizou indevidamente”, informou a assessoria em e-mail enviado ao G1.

The Detran-SP press office said it was premature to conclude that the official is under investigation. “What is being investigated is the use of the password in these operations, in an attempt to determine who made improper use of it,” Detran said in an e-mail sent to G1/Globo.

Hey, my credit card wound up buying weird stuff in Florida earlier this year, where I have never been (and am afraid to go). So I am sympathetic. Let us not lynch this fellow yet.

Por enquanto, sabe-se que a fraude beneficiou centenas de motoristas que tiveram os pontos retirados de suas CNHs. Muitos já foram ouvidos pela corregedoria e disseram que foram abordados por despachantes no Detran quando tentavam regularizar a carteira.

For now, it is known that the fraud benefited hundreds of motorists who had points subtracted from the licenses. Many were interviewed by internal affairs and said they were propositioned by Detran employees when they tried to put their licenses in order.

Uma favorecida afirmou que pagou R$ 700 pelo que pensava ser o novo processo para a concessão de sua carta. Ela tinha a permissão para dirigir e recebeu três multas, o que lhe impedia de receber a CNH definitiva.

One person so favored said she paid R$700 for what she thought was a new proceeding on the concession of her license. She had a temporary permit and received three tickets on it, which prevented her from receiving a definitive license.

Todos esses casos têm em comum o fato de que a ficha desses motoristas foi limpa por meio do uso da senha AD00000608, usada pelo delegado. Ainda não se sabe o total de beneficiados pelo esquema, pois muitos pontos podem ter sido transferidos para CNHs cujos donos não as renovaram nos últimos anos e não perceberam o golpe.

All these cases have in common the fact that the records of these drivers were cleaned up through the use of the password AD00000608, which was assigned to the official. It is still not known how many benefited from the scheme, because many points may have been transferred to licenses whose owners have not renewed them in recent years and who therefore did not notice the scam.