{"id":424137,"date":"2022-02-23T18:15:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T21:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=424137"},"modified":"2022-02-23T18:29:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T21:29:58","slug":"a-bridge-to-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/a-bridge-to-security\/","title":{"rendered":"A bridge to security"},"content":{"rendered":"

To help improve Brazil\u2019s public safety policies, characterized by combat techniques derived from the military culture and repressive aspects of criminal law, academic researchers previously focused on different manifestations of violence in society begin to look at one specific type: the challenges associated with police organizations. At the same time, public safety officers have been investing in academic careers as a path to find solutions to problems faced in their daily lives and organizations. In a context of truncated communications, in recent years professionals from security institutions and academia have looked for opportunities to develop contact initiatives. Recent studies resulting from this effort propose solutions to challenges involving urban violence, use of lethal force by police, and the death of officers.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
\n– Fine-tuned communication<\/a>
\n<\/div>\n

In Brazil, the first projects to foster innovation in police education, through partnerships between universities and public safety organizations, began to appear about 20 years ago. According to sociologist Jos\u00e9 Vicente Tavares dos Santos, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), one of the milestones was the 2003 establishment of the National Network of Advanced Studies on Public Safety, supported by partnerships with 60 universities to train specialists in the field. \u201cMore than 10,000 civil and military police officers took part in the initiative,\u201d he recalls. In 2015, the network set up a project to grant 600 students professional master\u2019s degrees with a focus on citizen safety, including strategies to reduce crime rates while training police officers in human rights and diversity issues. Tavares dos Santos cites five professional master\u2019s programs on citizen safety currently available in Brazil, offered by UFRGS, Amazonas State University (UEA), Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Federal University of Par\u00e1 (UFPA), and Minas Gerais State University (UEMG).<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n <\/picture>Alexandre Affonso<\/span>\n

The researcher explains that reforms adopted in the 1990s by American police inspired these initiatives, which moved away from the repressive model that drove their work in previous decades. \u201cThe changes were intended to encourage the development of a police force that was close to the communities, seeking alternatives to fight crime,\u201d says Tavares dos Santos. In New York, for example, social projects were established offering sports classes and libraries in areas with high violence and crime rates. Police performance protocols were reformed, and their permission to use firearms was restricted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently have two distinct concepts of what police work should be, one of which is guided by the concept of citizen safety. The second modality, which prevails in the design of Brazil\u2019s public policies, involves a repressive bias and dictates the militarization of procedures,\u201d compares Tavares dos Santos. Another milestone, says the sociologist, was the 2003 establishment of the National Curriculum Matrix through a partnership between academic researchers and the National Secretariat of Public Security, linked to the Ministry of Justice. The initiative provides for the inclusion of courses on human rights and diversity in police academy programs. \u201cThe challenge for democracy is establishing an approach to citizen safety where the police officer also acts as a protector of rights,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n <\/picture>Alexandre Affonso<\/span>\n

Intending to discuss the formation of a police identity and analyze changes made to the curricula of police academies in Rio de Janeiro after the establishment of the National Curriculum Matrix, sociologist Paula Poncioni, a retired professor from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a member of the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety (FBSP), published the book Tornar-se policial: O processo de constru\u00e7\u00e3o da identidade profissional do policial nas academias de pol\u00edcia<\/em> (Becoming a police officer: Building the professional identity of police officers in police academies \u2013 Appris Editora, 2021). The book addresses the results of different studies carried out since the late 1990s in partnership with institutions such as the Center for the Study of Violence at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (NEV-USP), the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), and FBSP, a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization dedicated to fostering technical cooperation for public safety. From 2002 to 2012, Poncioni carried out field research involving the civil and military police forces, following the careers of a generation of officers in Rio de Janeiro over a span of ten years. She found that, even after improving the resumes of instructors at police academies, they are still teaching new officers more traditional techniques, emphasizing repressive and punitive strategies to fight crime. \u201cThe formal content of the curricula has no effect on police practices,\u201d she says. Poncioni also states that, despite the mutual interest of academia and police organizations in studying and figuring out solutions to these problems, there is still a long way to go before this cooperation results in any significant change in the police hierarchy.<\/p>\n

When it comes to training, jurist and anthropologist Roberto Kant de Lima, from the Fluminense Federal University (UFF), explains that applicants for a military police officer job must have a bachelor\u2019s degree in law. \u201cBoth military and legal education are instructional and dogmatic, using authority as an argument to squash questions and resolve conflict. This means the work of police officers is contaminated by the repressiveness of criminal law, or of the military ethos,\u201d he claims. Ethos<\/em> is the set of customs or behavioral traits typical of a community or people.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n <\/picture>Alexandre Affonso<\/span>\n

One of the consequences of this repressive approach, according to Kant de Lima and Poncioni, is high rates of police violence. Published this year, the latest edition of the Public Safety Yearbook<\/em>, organized by FBSP, indicates that 6,400 people were killed because of police interventions in 2020. This is the highest historical number since the organization began tracking deaths in 2013. Black individuals made up 78.9% of their victims. In comparison with 2019, the document also shows that the number of deaths resulting from police operations increased in 18 of Brazil\u2019s 27 states, revealing a spread of police violence across the country. At the same time, in nine of the states, this number decreased.<\/p>\n

Such violence also affects the lives of the officers and their families, as sociologist Maria Cec\u00edlia de Souza Minayo, from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), found when conducting two censuses of civil and military police officers in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and 2018. By analyzing their demographic profile, living conditions and health data, Minayo found that officers who work in the most violent areas are also those who face more serious mental health problems. \u201cMany have depression and chronic insomnia, causing strain in their family life, which can aggravate their aggression. The police officers cause a feedback loop of the violence they face and reproduce it in their confrontations,\u201d says Minayo. One of the most memorable moments she experienced during the research was when hearing about how police officers feel about being obliged to attend their colleagues\u2019 funerals. \u201cI remember a sergeant who told me he had lost a friend in a conflict. He missed three days of work, running the risk of being arrested for contempt, but he stated he would rather be arrested than to have to walk alongside his colleague\u2019s coffin,\u201d she recalls. \u201cAttending the funerals of fellow officers is one of the greatest ordeals for police officers, who often feel guilty or see the experience as a harbinger of their own death.\u201d Minayo also emphasizes that police officers who experience violent situations have no opportunity to process the experience, as most do not receive psychological and social support.<\/p>\n

\"\"Juliana Russo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Motivated to understand the effects of public safety policies on the health of officers, Lieutenant Colonel Adriane Batista Pires Maia obtained a PhD this year at the FIOCRUZ Department of Violence and Health. An oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the State Secretariat of Military Police for the State of Rio de Janeiro, she conducted an epidemiological study with data from military police officers operated on because of gunshot wounds at the Central Hospital of the Military Police, from 2003 to 2017. \u201cThe majority of individuals shot by firearms are soldiers, corporals, or sergeants wounded within the first 10 years of their career. Those who survive face lifelong aftereffects,\u201d she states. During the period covered by the study, 778 surgeries were performed, and all patients were male with an average age of 34. \u201cLoss of limbs was the most common long-term consequence, as well as facial esthetic impairment, reports of insomnia, and difficulty in relationships,\u201d says Maia. According to data from her research, 75% of officers shot by firearms become unfit for work. The highest rates of police mortality are registered on the officers\u2019 days off, when they are armed and react to attempted crimes against them or other people, which is linked to the belief that they must always intervene. Another survey carried out this year by FBSP indicates that around 47,000 police officers, firefighters, and municipal guards across Brazil work as private security to supplement their income, which is prohibited by law and can result in death outside their official working hours. \u201cAs for morbidity cases, meaning officers are injured by firearms but do not die, these happen more frequently during their working hours. Therefore, I consider that morbidity caused by firearms is a direct consequence of the actions of police officers,\u201d she argues.<\/p>\n

In addition to aspects of police academy training, Poncioni, from UFRJ, identified that the construction of a police officer\u2019s professional identity is associated with the notion of hero or soldier. \u201cMany see themselves, and are seen by others, as heroes rather than workers with the right to work,\u201d says the sociologist. Her view is corroborated by Rafael Alcadipani, from the S\u00e3o Paulo School of Business Administration at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV-EAESP). \u201cIdentity plays a central role in this profession. Police officers often see themselves as heroes because it helps them face dangerous situations,\u201d suggests Silveira.<\/p>\n

\"\"Juliana Russo<\/span><\/a>According to the researchers consulted for this article, expanded communications between police organizations and the academic world constitutes a promising path to improve the nation\u2019s public safety policies. However, anthropologist Susana Dur\u00e3o, from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), points out obstacles to this. \u201cThere is a mutual ignorance of each other\u2019s cultural context. Studies in the field of violence sociology, which encompass different perspectives on the relationships and social structures of violence and criminality in Brazil, have predominated academia. Analyses of police organizations and police practices are less frequent. Officers believe that studies on the sociologies of violence and police violence point to problems, but do not provide solutions,\u201d she says. On the other hand, researchers claim that police officers are not open to academic studies. The anthropologist leads a committee at the Zumbi dos Palmares University, which includes members of the Public Safety Secretariat of the State of S\u00e3o Paulo, civil and military police officers, municipal guards, and representatives from private safety sectors. \u201cWe established the committee to track police training in the state and identify humanist and antiracist content in the programs. Based on this diagnosis, the goal is to propose improvements to the entire system,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Between two worlds<\/strong>
\nSitting in his office at the 21st<\/sup> Battalion of the Metropolitan Military Police, at Parque da Mooca, in S\u00e3o Paulo, Lt. Col. Alan Fernandes recalls one of the most challenging experiences in his 20-year career straddling the policing and academic worlds. In 2013, in partnership with sociologists Esther Solano and Liana de Paula, from the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (UNIFESP), he helped organize a seminar on public safety at the Foundation School of Sociology and Political Science of S\u00e3o Paulo (FESPSP), where he was a graduate student at the time. The event had the goal of bringing together 30 military police officers to debate with academic researchers. However, because they were prohibited from entering the educational institution with a firearm, most refused and, in the end, only eight of them attended. \u201cThe refusal to go in unarmed is related to the officer\u2019s identity. Carrying a gun is part of the ethos of the profession,\u201d he explains. With a PhD in public administration and government from FGV-EAESP, Fernandes considers, on the other hand, that research on police victimization carried out since 2010 began sensitizing officers about the importance of communicating with the academic world. During his PhD, completed in 2021, he studied the historical development of police strategies and ideologies, as well as different models of public safety policies. Regarding the impacts of academic training on daily work, he provides an example with the changes in the way officers handle conflicts in \u201cbailes funk<\/em>\u201d (parties or establishments that play Rio de Janeiro funk music). \u201cThe traditional police response to these events was to use force and repressive strategies to disperse participants. My PhD research helped me formulate alternative solutions, and I started to encourage police officers to act as mediators of conflict,\u201d he says. While looking at a large map depicting the jurisdiction of the battalion he commands, Fernandes cites research topics that he considers relevant to the daily life of police officers, including the impact on neighborhood crime rates, the installation of cameras in the streets, and the construction of headquarter buildings.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\nDUR\u00c3O, S. and COELHO, M. C. Do que fala quem fala sobre pol\u00edcia no Brasil? Uma revis\u00e3o da literatura<\/a>. An\u00e1lise Social<\/strong>, LV (1), no. 234, pp. 72\u201399, 2020.
\nMAIA, A. B. P. et al.<\/em> As marcas da viol\u00eancia por arma de fogo em face<\/a>. Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology<\/strong>. Vol. 87 (2) pp. 145\u201351, 2021.
\nMAIA, A. B. P. et al.<\/em> Ferimentos n\u00e3o fatais por arma de fogo entre policiais militares do Rio de Janeiro: A sa\u00fade como campo de emerg\u00eancia contra a naturaliza\u00e7\u00e3o da viol\u00eancia<\/a>. Ci\u00eancia & Sa\u00fade Coletiva<\/strong>, Vol. 26 (5), pp. 1911\u201322, 2021.<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong>
\nLIMA, R. K de. A pol\u00edcia da cidade do Rio de Janeiro: Seus dilemas e paradoxos<\/strong>. Rio de Janeiro: Amazon, 2019.
\nPONCIONI, P. Tornar-se policial: O processo de constru\u00e7\u00e3o da identidade profissional do policial nas academias de pol\u00edcia<\/strong>. Curitiba: Appris Editora, 2021.
\nTAVARES DOS SANTOS, J. V. et al (ed.). Viol\u00eancia, seguran\u00e7a e pol\u00edtica \u2013 Processos e figura\u00e7\u00f5es<\/strong>. Porto Alegre: Tomo Editorial, 2019.
\nTAVARES DOS SANTOS, J. V. Ambival\u00eancias do ensino policial: Educar ou treinar? Um estudo em sociologia da conflitualidade. (Ambivalence around police education: Education or training? A study of the sociology of conflict). In: ADORNO, S. and LIMA, R. S. (Ed.). Viol\u00eancia, pol\u00edcia, justi\u00e7a e puni\u00e7\u00e3o: Desafios \u00e0 seguran\u00e7a cidad\u00e3<\/strong>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Alameda, 2019, pp. 231\u2013302.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dialogue between academia and police stimulates development of security policies","protected":false},"author":601,"featured_media":422574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[256,261],"coauthors":[1600],"class_list":["post-424137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanities","tag-public-policies","tag-sociology","position_at_home-sumario"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424137"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425516,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424137\/revisions\/425516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424137"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=424137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}