This is a picture of Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. It looks a lot like the Gold Coast in Queensland to me but one thing it has that the Gold Coast doesnt is one of the largest and poorest shanty towns in Brasil. This is a problem because abject poverty translates into crime and there has been a massive increase in thefts and assaults on the beach lately.

In an effort to counter crime wave a new 50 man police squad is going undercover, or should that be uncovered, on this famous beach. Yep, the Rio police are stripping down to the bare essentials to mingle with the beach set and nab the errant locals.

A brief review of pictures of the Ipanema set via google suggests that they are going to have to choose the police officers for this assignment carefully if they are going to mingle unobtrusively.