Released this week, research by the Security Observatories Network highlights the weight of racism in public security
A study published this week by the Security Observatory Network shows that 4,025 people were killed by police officers in Brazil in 2023. In 3,169 of these cases, skin color data was made available: 2,782 of the victims were black people, which represents 87.8% .
Bulletin data Targeted Skin: Deaths That Reveal a Patternwhich is in its 5th edition, were obtained via the Access to Information Law (LAI) in 9 States. In all of them, the pattern is a very high proportion of black people killed by State intervention: Amazonas (92.6%), Bahia (94.6%), Ceará (88.7%), Maranhão (80%), Pará (91.7%), Pernambuco (95.7%), Piauí (74.1%), Rio de Janeiro (86.9%) and São Paulo (66.3%).
For the social scientist and coordinator of the Network, Silvia Ramos, the numbers are “scandalous” and reinforce a structural problem in the country: racism that crosses different areas such as education, health, the job market, but which has its most critical face in security. public.
“The profile of police suspects is strengthened in corporations. The police officer learns that he must treat a young white man dressed in a suit differently in the city and a young black man in shorts and flip-flops in a favela. The point is: 99.9% of young black people in favelas and outskirts are wearing shorts and flip-flops. And everyone starts to be seen as dangerous and as possible targets that the police, if necessary, can kill.”says the researcher.
In the analysis by States, Bahia is the unit of the Federation with the most lethal police, with 1,702 deaths. This was the 2nd highest number ever recorded since 2019 among all monitored states. Next comes Rio de Janeiro (871), Pará (530), São Paulo (510), Ceará (147), Pernambuco (117), Maranhão (62), Amazonas (59) and Piauí (27).
“What we see in Bahia is an escalation. Since the Network began monitoring the state, there has been a 161% increase in deaths. From 2019 to 2023, the following happened within the Bahian police: instead of curbing the use of lethal force, there was encouragement. You can be sure, it’s not just because criminals are confronting the police more. It’s because there is a police whose lethal action has been released.”says the social scientist. “If police officers kill a lot, receive congratulations from commanders and institutional incentives, the tendency is for this type of violent action to be increasingly encouraged”.
Youth
The study also highlights that young people are the part of the population most victimized by the police, mainly in the 18 to 29 age group.
And he cites Ceará as a negative example, where this group represents 69.4% of the total deaths. Even more serious is the data that indicates that, in all the states analyzed, 243 of the victims were children and adolescents aged 12 to 17.
Regional particularities
Some states saw a reduction in police lethality. The case of Amazonas, with a drop of 40.4% and a change in the territorial distribution of victims: the majority of deaths were in the interior of the State. Maranhão, Piauí and Rio de Janeiro also showed a reduction in lethality compared to 2022: 32.6%, 30.8% and 34.5%, respectively.
In Ceará and Pará, more discreet drops in deaths due to State intervention were recorded: 3.3% and 16% respectively. But the number of black victims increased by 27% in Ceará and 13.7% in Pará.
In Bahia, there is an exponential increase, with 3 black victims recorded per day in 2023. The number of victims increased by 16.1%. Pernambuco was the state that recorded the biggest increase in the number of deaths, with 28.6% more cases than in 2022. São Paulo broke the record of reduction and increased deaths in police actions by 21.7%.
Missing data
For the first time since 2021, when it became part of the study, Maranhão provided color data on victims of police lethality. But incompletely: 5 out of 7 victims did not have their racial profile recognized, that is, the information was present in only 32.3% of cases.
Ceará had a slight improvement, but 63.9% of victims still do not have a recognized color. In Amazonas, these are 54.2% of cases. In Pará, those not informed represent 52.3%.
In total, 856 victims do not have color registrations in the 9 States. The organizers of the study reinforce the importance of governments being transparent and including this data in 100% of cases for a qualified analysis of reality. In this way, they say, the Public Power will be able to direct efforts towards a safer society for everyone.
Secretariats
The report from Brazil Agency contacted some of the state security departments to comment on the study.
Segup (Secretariat of Public Security and Social Defense of Pará) said that it has “invested in the qualification of agents and in technological equipment that legitimizes security actions, such as the use of 1,600 body cameras (bodycams) by agents. Furthermore, neuromuscular incapacitation weapons were acquired for the Military and Civil Police, aiming at containment without the risk of serious injuries.”.
And social inclusion policies have also been implemented, such as the 9 Usinas da Paz, a state multifunctional complex with free services to promote citizenship and combat violence. Segup attributes these initiatives to a 15.89% reduction in Deaths due to Intervention by State Agents (MIAE) from January to December 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.
The Rio de Janeiro State Public Security Secretariat reported that it is based on official criminal statistics produced by the Public Security Institute (ISP). And he mentions the Violent Lethality category, in which there was a reduction of 15% in the accumulated and 16% in the last month, compared to the same periods in 2023.
The category, however, brings together different types of violence in the same group, such as intentional homicides, robberies (robberies followed by death), bodily injuries followed by death and deaths due to the intervention of State agents. He further said that “is unaware of the methodology used in the research and the possibility of data traceability”.
Adds that “the deaths of criminals in confrontations occurred as a result of attacks carried out against State agents, who work to capture and hold them accountable”. And that the “institution reinforces that actions always prioritize the preservation of lives”.
According to the State Secretariat for Public Security Affairs of São Paulo (SSP-SP), “deaths resulting from police intervention are the result of suspects’ reaction to police action”. The body guarantees that all cases of this type are rigorously investigated by the Civil and Military Police, with monitoring by the internal affairs bodies, the Public Ministry and the Judiciary. SSP-SP said it is investing “continuously training personnel, acquiring equipment with less offensive potential and public policies”.
The Secretariat of Public Security and Social Defense of Ceará (SSPDS) said it is committed to “reducing stigma and vulnerability against black people” and that it is in dialogue with the Secretariat of Racial Equality (Seir) to coordinate actions to combat discrimination. The ministry stated that it treats “all deaths resulting from police intervention seriously and transparently”. He also informed that he will soon launch a new technology to cross-reference strategic data from police investigations and surveys by the Superintendency of Public Security Research and Strategy (Supesp), as well as the profile of crime victims. The secretariat guaranteed that public security professionals participate in initial and continuing training for humanized care for black people and other vulnerable groups.
The governments of Bahia and Pernambuco have not responded so far.
With information from .
