Walking the streets of Niterói appears to have become safer since 2020, at least when pedestrian thefts in the Rio metropolitan region city are taken into account. During the first half of this pandemic year, there were 699 crime cases. Since then, after consecutive declines in figures, the first six months of 2024 closed with 374 registrations, a reduction of 46.5% in four years. But at the start of 2025, this trend reversed and, from January to June, there were 451 attacks against passers-by, an increase of 20.6% compared to the same period of the previous year. And those who felt the effects of this change the most were residents and visitors to large, bustling neighborhoods, reveals Crime Map, GLOBO’s interactive theft-monitoring tool.
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The mapping — which, in the stage launched today, brings together data from Niterói and updates data from the municipality of Rio — shows that, in the land of Arariboia and the works of Oscar Niemeyer, there has also been an intensification of cell phone and vehicle thefts: after four years of dizzying decline, cases increased by 75.4% and 66.3% respectively in the first half of 2025 compared to the same month of 2024. The city still has its kind. oasis of peace, if we consider the reality of Rio de Janeiro. But five of its 51 neighborhoods (Centro, Icaraí, Fonseca, Barreto and Itaipu), facing an escalation of events, increased the figures for the entire municipality.
The main one is the Center, where two types of crimes broke records between January and June. There were 134 cases of cell phone thefts (an increase of 15.5%) and 55 attacks on passers-by (an increase of 19.6%), the highest figures for the region in the historical series of the Crime Map, which begins in 2020. The political-administrative heart of the city, which lives with the daily flow of people entering and leaving the capital by ferry or by the Rio-Niterói bridge, represents a third of pedestrian thefts and a quarter of cell phone thefts citywide, topping the neighborhood rankings for both indicators.
— The initiatives to revitalize the Center by the public authorities have increased the movement of people, particularly at night and on the quay. This ends up attracting criminals, especially after cell phones, which fuel a criminal cycle of receiving and reselling devices — explains lawyer and doctor of public policy Alberto Kopittke, who works as a public security consultant for the city of Niterói.
Cell phone thefts have also increased in Icaraí, the most populated and valued neighborhood of Niterói. There were 32 episodes in the first half of 2025, more than triple the only nine incidents recorded the previous year. The 255% increase is the largest among Niterói neighborhoods with more than ten criminal records and places Icaraí as the second neighborhood in the city with the most cell phone thefts, behind the Center. The number of pedestrian thefts and car thefts remained stable in the region.
Civil police investigations reveal that a considerable part of the devices stolen in Niterói are destined for Feira do Laranjal, located in an area under the control of Comando Vermelho, in the neighboring municipality of São Gonçalo. Last July, agents of the 76th DP (Niterói) arrested Carlos Henrique de Paula Gonçalves, owner of a stand at the fair and identified as one of the biggest receivers of stolen devices in the city. Gonçalves was identified after a telephone operator informed police that a smartphone stolen from Niterói had been reconnected and was being used by a new owner. The agents then located and summoned the person, who returned the material and stated, in a statement, that he had purchased it at the Gonçalves stand, in Feira do Laranjal.
Dozens of devices were found at the dealer, including seven stolen or stolen. In a statement to the Court, Gonçalves said “he did not know the origin of the equipment acquired, usually buying it broken with the intention of repairing and reselling it.” On the 2nd, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison by Judge Juliana Cardoso Monteiro de Barros, of the 3rd Criminal Court of São Gonçalo.
— The mobile phone is a small object, with high added value and essential. Since everyone has one, anyone on the street becomes a target. Additionally, there is no effective national or state policy to monitor and combat the hospitality market. This illegal market generates a lot of money, encouraging the practice of crime. Structured reception networks support the increase in delinquency on the streets — analyzes Carolina Grillo, professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Science Methodology at the UFF.
Another place that has had an impact on the city’s population growth is Fonseca, where thefts from passers-by, cell phones and vehicles increased by 20.5%, 175% and 75% respectively in the first six months of 2025. Residents say this fluctuation is influenced by the CV, which controls local traffic.
A 37-year-old musician who had his cell phone stolen in October 2024, on a road between Fonseca and the Cubango neighborhood, claims that after his story went viral in WhatsApp groups, drug traffickers from neighboring communities banned any action there. At that time, he was returning home, a few meters from the Alameda São Boaventura – the most important road in the region, used daily by drivers on their way to the capital, Maricá and São Gonçalo –, when a criminal in a Fiat Uno stopped the car, took out a pistol and announced the theft. In addition to the device, the musician had to hand over his bag, which contained headphones, his identity card, a portable battery and a rosary.
— The same week as the attack, my mother told me to be careful because they had restarted the robbery here in the street. After the incident, I reported what happened to the residents’ association group. Somehow this reached the drug trade and flights were banned again, the resident says.
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Currently, Fonseca is one of the neighborhoods most affected by factional conflict in the city. At least three Pure Third Commandment (TCP) invasion attempts have challenged CV hegemony in the region. The shootings have been going on for more than three weeks. The increase in car thefts in Niterói in the first half of the year was concentrated mainly in two neighborhoods close to the borders of other cities: Itaipu, next to Maricá, and Barreto, next to São Gonçalo.
The former saw a jump from just two cases in 2024 to 13 this year; The second saw incidents double, from eight to 16 thefts. In Barreto, crime accumulates on the section of the Niterói-Manilha highway that passes through the neighborhood. In Itaipu, the civil police are investigating the link between thefts and clandestine heists.
The only one of the four indicators tracked by the Crime Map that remained on a downward trend in Niterói was collective theft. During the first half of 2025, there were only 13 cases in the city, the lowest number in the entire historic series that began in 2020. No neighborhood recorded more than two cases, and 41 of the 51 mapped neighborhoods recorded no cases. Police officers and experts interviewed by GLOBO associate this reduction with a joint effort to map criminals and the most affected lines, carried out by the town hall and the police.
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Despite the increase in the first half of this year, the number of flights in Niterói is at a much lower level than in the capital – the city even has lower numbers than several neighborhoods in Rio, even though its population is much larger. During the first half of this year, for example, Niterói recorded fewer cell phone thefts (226) than Tijuca (361), Botafogo (333) and Barra da Tijuca (262). None of these neighborhoods have even half of Niterói’s residents.
The city’s criminal dynamics present another characteristic different from that of the capital: crime accumulates in a small number of neighborhoods. Just five neighborhoods – Centro, Icaraí, Fonseca, Santa Rosa and Ingá – recorded more than half of the city’s cell phone thefts. Meanwhile, neighborhoods such as Cafubá, Jurujuba, Pé Pequeno and Tenente Jardim had no record of any of the four crimes analyzed by the Crime Map during the first half of 2025.
When contacted, the city of Niterói stated that “although security is a state responsibility, it is a local priority, with actions based on integration, technology, social prevention and data monitoring.” 640 to 624, a drop of 2.5%.
The Prime Minister indicated that “he has adopted several operational measures aimed at preventing all types of crimes in his area of activity”. The company said the actions taken resulted in a “historic third quarter, achieving unprecedented scores in major crime indices.” As an example, he highlighted “vehicle thefts, with a reduction of 53%, street thefts, with a decrease of 33%, and thefts from commercial establishments, with a reduction of 6%, comparing the same quarters of 2024 and 2025”.
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