When It Comes to Public Safety, Rio de Janeiro Has Receded Seven Years

02/19/2018 - 10h31

In 2010, Brazil turned on the TV to watch the occupation of the Alemão slum complex, which was supposedly a symbol of the pacification of Rio's favelas. Since then, seven years have gone by and the current rate of violent deaths in the state surpasses the 2010 rates.

Rio de Janeiro did not manage to sustainably reduce crime rates. The statistics reveal that the trend in violence has been on the rise for a while now. Now, while the political and financial crises that the state is going through have exacerbated the situation, experts maintain that they do not explain the present state of affairs all by themselves.

In light of these circumstances, President Michel Temer has decided to use the country's military and intervene in Rio de Janeiro's public security after signing a decree on Friday (the 16th).

In 2017, the rate of violent deaths was 40 per 100,000 inhabitants, meaning that Rio receded to roughly the average between the 2009 and 2010 rates (44.9 and 36.4 respectively).

Things seem to have deteriorated in 2018. Official January statistics have not yet been released by the government, but the Fogo Cruzado app (or "Crossfire"), which offers information on gun-related conflicts in the metropolitan region, registered 688 shootings or shots fired in the first month of the year - the highest number registered by the platform since it was launched in July of 2016.

The figure represents a 117% increase when compared to the same period of 2017. It also represents a daily average of 22 shootings/shots fired: the average for 2017 was 16 shootings/shots fired per day.

Though the scenes of violence that took place in Rio last year are comparable to the violence that shook the city in the 1990s, the city hasn't yet receded to that era in statistical terms.

Between 1991 and 2005 the overall trend in terms violent deaths was a downward one for the most part, though there were fluctuations. From 2005 to 2012 the figure fell consistently, though it rose in 2013 before dropping slightly in 2015.

According to Ignacio Cano, at the Violence Analysis Laboratory at the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), the successful policies that were implemented during the first couple years of José Mariano Beltrame's mandate (who served as Rio's Public Safety Secretary from 2007 to 2016) were extended without being reassessed or modified.

Examples cited included the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs). There are currently 38 units: one was launched in 2008, four were launched in 2009, another eight in 2010, five in 2011, ten in 2012, eight in 2013 and two in 2014.

The Military Police program seeks to set targets and reduce deaths through police operations as well as police stations that are specialized in investigating homicides.

"The positive results made them get comfortable. There was this naive idea where the mere implementation of these initiatives seemed to be enough to get them to work. The impact these measures had was exhausted while other factors contributed to the current state we're in."

The UPPs, which had been heralded as the state's main security initiative, fell apart - a study conducted by the Military Police reported 13 conflicts in UPP-controlled areas in 2011 versus 1,555 conflicts in 2016 - a reflection of the deteriorating condition that the state's public safety is in.

According to Colonel Ibis Pereira, who, at one point, became the interim commander of Rio's Military Police, the UPPs were more of a theoretical solution than a practical one.

"UPPs were never institutionalized. They were on the rhetorical level", he said. Mr. Ibis substantiated this claim by pointing out that the decree regulating the program was only published in 2015, seven years after the first unit was implemented in December of 2008 in the Dona Marta favela in Botafogo, the city's southern district.

Specialists maintain that the situation has been exacerbated by the political and budget crises that Rio is undergoing. The state's former governor is in jail, while the current governor, Luiz Fernando Pezão (PMDB), has failed to demonstrate that he has a firm grip on public safety.

Ever since June of 2016, Rio de Janeiro has been in a state of public calamity. Among the reasons for this are the drastic drops in terms of tax revenues, oil prices and Petrobras investments. The budget deficit doesn't just put public services in a precarious state: it also means that civil servants have been facing back pays.

The state also lacks the resources to hire Military Police officers who pass the entrance exam. The police force lacks equipment such as bulletproof vests and ammunition. Officers have also had to put up with obsolete firearms and little gas in their cars.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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