The state is facing a surge in cases of police brutality; The SSP says it has received a letter and will provide information on the matter
After a series of cases of police violence in São Paulo In recent days, the State Public Defense Office issued a recommendation this week to the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) to adopt measures to ensure the removal from their apparent duties of officers involved in deaths resulting from police interventionincluding those involved in cases of civilian deaths between 2023 and 2024. The SSP says it has received a letter and will provide information on the matter.
The Ombudsman’s recommendation reinforces the sentence that the Brazilian State received on March 14, 2024 from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDH Court), when the country was condemned for “the extrajudicial execution carried out by agents of the military police of State of Sao Paulo” in Operation Castelinho, which killed 12 civilians at a toll booth on the Castelo Branco highway, near Sorocaba, on 5 March 2002.
The International Court found that there was a “lack of due diligence in the investigation” of the case and, among the established remedial measures, asked the State to take the “necessary measures to have a regulatory framework that allows every police officer involved in a death resulting from police action is temporarily removed from his ostensible role until the appropriateness and appropriateness of his reinstatement by the Department of Internal Affairs is determined.
Al Estadaothe SSP specified that “removals occur in cases where it is necessary to investigate the conduct of police officers” and that “all information will be provided” to the public defender’s office. “The Military Police does not condone the misconduct of its officers, punishing in an exemplary manner those who break the law and disobey the strict protocols established by the institution,” the ministry said.
- During the leave period, officers are transferred to administrative work for the Military Police, ceasing to act in police approaches until they are judged. If they are eliminated, they return to their manifest work. If convicted, they leave the Military Police and face criminal charges for abuse of authority.
In July of this year, the Military Police of São Paulo amended the protocol for the removal of military police officers due to police violence, as established by the Secretary of Public Security, Guilherme Derrite. Until then, local commanders had the power to remove a police officer from operational activities as soon as the incident occurred. The investigative procedure began immediately afterwards.
Now local commanders must submit a request to the deputy commander general of the Military Police, who will have to analyze and decide whether or not to remove the police officer. “This causes a delay, because while the deputy commander does not speak – and has several commitments, not only this one, to fulfill – the police officer normally works on the street,” says Leonardo Carvalho, researcher at the Brazilian Public Department Security Forum.
“A mechanism that acted as a brake on possible cases of abusive use of force is being bureaucratized. It was the same thing when there was the change to body cameras (which previously recorded continuously and now work thanks to the intervention of the police officer himself),” says Carvalho.
For the researcher, the immediate removal of police officers involved in fatal cases, even when it is presumed there has been a correct use of force – when there is self-defense – is essential both to guarantee the mental health of the police officers involved that of the local community. immediately after the incident, as well as to “send a clear message to the battalion that deaths caused by police officers are something serious, which triggers a series of protocols and investigations”.
In the last 30 days alone, 46 police officers have been removed from operational activities and two have been arrested in the State of Sao Paulo due to police violence and SSP data indicates that from January to September of this year the Military Police have killed 496 people. people. This is the highest number of deaths due to police intervention in the state since 2020, interrupting the downward trend recorded since the start of the use of body cameras in officers’ uniforms.
