The former national secretary of Public Security, José Vicente da Silva Filho, in an interview with WWaddressed the issue of police brutality and the need to improve the professionalism of security forces in the country.
Silva Filho argued that the recent cases of police violence in São Paulo, widely publicized by the media, do not necessarily represent a widespread problem in the São Paulo corporation. “These images give the impression that São Paulo, with three successive cases of failures of individual actions, that this could be contaminating the entire police force that has at least 10 million actions per year”, he explained.
The expert highlighted that the São Paulo police arrest around 160,000 people annually, and that if the police were as unprepared as the images suggest, “it would be an absolute tragedy”. However, he acknowledged that there are problems that need to be fixed.
Police violence beyond São Paulo
Silva Filho drew attention to the situation in other Brazilian states, where police violence is proportionally more serious. He cited examples such as Amapá, Bahia and Sergipe, where, if the population proportion of São Paulo was applied, the number of deaths due to police action would be much higher.
“If we apply the population of São Paulo to Amapá, police deaths would be 10 thousand per year. Can you imagine São Paulo with 10 thousand deaths? There were 500”, compared the former secretary.
The expert emphasized that the problem of police violence is broader than it appears, as many cases are not filmed or do not receive national attention.
“The police in Brazil need to substantially improve their capacity to contain violence in general and also improve the professionalism of their police officers,” he stated.
