From Monday (16/10) onwards, 155 agents from the National Security Force, who are already in the city of Rio de Janeiro, will work openly and daily to patrol the city. In a press conference held this afternoon, at Casa Firjan, in the South Zone of Rio, the Minister of Justice and Public Security Flavio Dino, stated that the idea is for agents to help monitor the state’s four main federal highways: Washington Luiz (BR-040), Presidente Dutra (BR-116), Arco Metropolitano (BR-493) and Rio-Magé (BR-116). Another 150 agents are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
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Work on Two Fronts
The minister also reinforced that the National Force, with the Federal Highway Police (PRF), will be divided into two fronts. The first, obvious, will take place on federal highways, ports, and Guanabara Bay. The second, considered intelligence, will combine technology and internal police apparatus. As an example of this, the minister cited the Federal Police operation that seized, a week ago, 47 rifles in a mansion in Barra da Tijuca.
Weekly Assessment
According to Flavio Dino, the participation of the National Force will be evaluated weekly. If the results are not significant, there will be changes in the organization and action of the teams. The minister does not rule out the possibility of support from the Armed Forces, in the future, to be able to ‘strengthen the results of these actions’.
Absence of Cameras
The lack of cameras for police officers’ uniforms was the main factor that made the Ministry of Justice limit the National Force’s operations in Rio de Janeiro to ports and highways, said minister Flávio Dino. In the letter, the Federal Public Ministry questioned a possible obstruction of the rules established by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Federal Supreme Court: as the work would be carried out in communities, the agents’ uniforms would need to carry cameras, in order to reduce police lethality. Dino explained that the government has not yet purchased cameras for the men of the National Force, so the agents’ action strategy was limited to highways and ports.
Access the Cameras
The executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ricardo Cappelli, asked the mayor of Rio de Janeiro for free access to CET-Rio’s security cameras. The objective is to integrate the municipality’s traffic control system with the intelligence service of the Federal Highway Police (PRF). In Cappelli’s opinion, the exchange of information will help in monitoring suspicious vehicles that pass-through Rio’s main roads, such as the Red and Yellow lines and Avenue Brasil.
Avenue Brasil Out
At least for now, Avenida Brasil is outside the plans of the Federal Highway Police’s (PRF) ostensible surveillance, initiated on stretches of federal roads in the Metropolitan Region of Rio. But the safety of those traveling along the main road access to Rio, however, is not exactly guaranteed. Its 58.5 kilometers in length, which runs from Santa Cruz to the Port Zone, cuts through 26 neighborhoods. Sections where 70 favelas are located within a radius of 250 meters around the expressway have become the most unsafe, as they eventually facilitate the escape of criminals. According to the Pereira Passos Institute (IPP), the highway passes, for example, close to 11 communities in Complexo da Maré — where three drug factions and the militia are fighting —, Vila Kennedy and Cidade Alta.
Just in the recording of firearm shots — without counting robberies, kidnappings or other types of crimes that do not involve shooting —, the Fogo Cruzado Institute mapped 184 episodes in Avenue Brasil, between 5 July 2016 and 5 October 2023, in average two per month. The statistics of violence during this period left a trail of 43 dead and 84 injured.
Analysis:
Scholars point out that between 1995 and 2018 there was an increase in spending on public security of around 116%, without significant results in the drop in violence in the country. The lack of focus, integration and proactivity of federal entities, without any evidence-based strategy, tends to only increase the number of low-risk prisoners and not achieve substantial results. This is exactly the cycle that has been repeating itself in Rio year after year, even with government changes.
