Editor’s note: Today’s post is by Captain Bruno Pettinato of the Military Police of the State of São Paulo (PMESP) in Brazil. PMESP chose Android Enterprise for its 80,000 officers in São Paulo and recently integrated the Remote Lock feature into their toolkit to help identify citizens’ stolen mobile devices and protect their personal data.
Cell phone robbery is a frustrating crime for citizens and officers alike in Brazil. In São Paulo, the Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo (PMESP) is focused on protecting the public, including managing security at major events such as the Carnaval de São Paulo. To deliver superior service to both the 80,000 officers on the street and the IT teams managing the fleet, PMESP chose Android Enterprise. We have successfully deployed 10,000 Terminal Portátil de Dados (TPD) units in police vehicles, equipping all PMESP officers in São Paulo with a dedicated, secure mobile tool.
TPD is an essential, fully managed device that houses critical applications for criminal and vehicle research, police report preparation and traffic ticketing. Android Enterprise enables centralized device and app management that simplifies operations for our IT teams. We can push important apps like Google Maps from our headquarters in São Paulo via Urmobo’s Mobile Device Management (MDM), ensuring that all 10,000 TPD devices receive the update in minutes. The ease of implementation of Zero-Touch, combined with Android’s commitment to regular security updates, ensures that our officers always have the most secure and up-to-date tools at their disposal.
Help from Android when our citizens need it most
The success of the Android Enterprise TPD devices went beyond core features. Officers quickly became so comfortable using the devices that they began coming to their supervisors with new ideas for using Android features to improve productivity or help citizens. This is how we learned about the potential of Android Remote Lock.
Participants often ask PMESP officers on site for help when phones are stolen or lost at major public events, such as the Carnaval de São Paulo. Previously, we could only help by filing a police report. With Brazil’s high Android usage, we realized that leveraging a built-in Android security feature could allow our officers to help victims secure their personal data and prevent abuse by criminals.
We shared our challenge with Google’s Android Enterprise team in São Paulo. They helped us understand how to leverage Remote Lock across our 10,000 TPD devices, a critical solution given Brazil’s high Android usage. We are now able to better serve victims of phone theft using Android’s built-in security.
Turn officer insight into a theft prevention solution
If police officers are alerted to a device theft, they can access the Remote Lock web page, part of the Android Find Hub, using their TPDs. An officer enters the citizen’s phone number into Find Hub and that’s it — the device’s screen is locked, preventing someone else from accessing or misusing the personal data on the phone.
Even better, we can now track the stolen device’s location instantly. With the victim’s permission, we log them into their account using the Find Hub guest mode on TPDs to begin tracking. From the moment tracking begins, we can report movements via GPS and enable device tracking to recover the device and arrest the criminal, providing even better service to our citizens.
Positive feedback from officers and citizens
The State of São Paulo began using Remote Lock in June 2025. Since then, the feature has been used by PMESP officers more than 5,000 times. In addition, a video we made telling citizens how to activate the Remote Lock feature has received more than 1 million views.
We hear every day from our offices helping citizens with the Remote Lock feature that they can see the relief on victims’ faces when they realize their personal data will be safe from criminals. Based on its ease of use and the warm reception from our community, we believe this solution can be replicated by police departments around the world, and we invite other organizations to discover the power of always-on Android security by contacting a partner.