Colonel José Augusto Coutinho was head of the route and shock; It assumes in a context of increased PM violence in the state
The Government of São Paulo announced on Wednesday (16.ab.2025) the exchange in charge of the Military Police. Colonel Cássio Araújo de Freitas, in office since January 2023, was replaced by the deputy commander José Augusto Coutinho, also a colonel.
According to the Secretary of Public Security, Guilherme Derrite, Freitas will retire, but should continue working in the area of security. His passage through the PM command was marked by the increase in police deaths in the state, with cases of violence that mobilized public opinion.
The new commander of PM Paulista has 33 years of experience in the corporation. Colonel Coutinho joined the police in January 1992 and, throughout his career, commanded shock policing, the Route (Rounds Ostensivas Tobias Aguiar), the 4th Special Operations Battalion, among other leadership functions. He He is a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and a doctor of police sciences of security and public order from the PM Security Center.
Colonel Coutinho takes office in a context of increasing police violence. After registering a fall with the implementation of the Camera Program in the PMs uniforms in the 2nd semester of 2020, the figures grew again with the possession of Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) as governor, according to data released by the Brazilian Public Security Forum in 2025. There are a (PDF – 2 MB).
Tarcisio was elected with a critical speech to the use of cameras. The governor, however, changed his mind publicly in December 2024. After cases of great repercussion, with explicit aggressions committed by PMs “What a suspect came from above a bridge,” the Republican party politician admitted that he was “completely wrong” in his criticism of the use of the equipment.
The above survey considers only cases with sex informed at the base of the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat. According to the data, more than 99% of the victims identified in all the years analyzed were male.
