COSIP as the Fiscal Architecture of Prevention and the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Search for Missing Persons

Abstract

This study examines how Brazil’s 2023 Tax Reform (Constitutional Amendment No. 132/2023), by expanding the scope of the Public Lighting Service Contribution (COSIP), opened a previously unexplored fiscal avenue for municipal financing of urban monitoring systems that use facial recognition and artificial intelligence in the search for missing persons. The study combines documentary analysis of the legislative process, legal-institutional analysis, and primary budget-execution data from Brazil’s Integrated Planning and Budget System (SIOP). The findings reveal a significant gap between the formal priority assigned to the National Policy for the Search of Missing Persons under Law No. 13,812/2019 and the material conditions for its implementation: from 2019 to 2023, the policy had no dedicated federal budget appropriation, and even after resources began to be allocated in 2024, investment expenditure remained unexecuted. We argue that the amended Article 149-A of the Constitution provides a legal and fiscal mechanism for addressing part of this funding gap by allowing municipalities and the Federal District to finance public-space monitoring systems through a predictable and earmarked revenue source, including systems integrated into efforts to locate missing persons. The study further proposes a normative framework designed to provide greater uniformity and legal certainty for this use, together with safeguards governing data processing and facial recognition. Building on these findings, the study develops the concept of the fiscal architecture of prevention, according to which the effectiveness of technology-supported preventive policies depends not only on technological and public policy design, but also on the fiscal and institutional arrangements capable of securing their sustained financing.