Politics

In 15 years, only 1.5% of police operations in RJ were efficient, according to research

July 25, 2022
11:03 AM

Between 2007 and 2021, only 1.5% of police operations carried out in the state of Rio de Janeiro were considered efficient, according to a survey by the Grupo de Estudos de Novos Ilegalismos (GENI) of the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), produced at the request gives CNN .

In 15 years, there were 17,929 operations accounted for by the Police Operations Efficiency Indicator.

The indicator is based on the impacts for those involved in the actions, such as the number of deaths, injuries and prisoners.

It also considers the motivations for the operations, such as the execution of arrest warrants and/or search and seizure, repression of drug and arms trafficking, disputes between criminal groups, escape and/or persecution, property motivations, retaliation for death or attack on police unit.

Another item evaluated are the seizures of weapons, drugs, cargo and vehicles.

Following these criteria, of the 17,929 operations analyzed in the 15-year period, 28.6% were identified as inefficient, 9.6% as disastrous, 44.8% as inefficient and 15.4% as reasonably efficient.

The worst year in terms of results was 2007, with 49.74% of police actions classified as ineffective or disastrous.

Then come the years 2021, with an inefficiency rate of 46.4%; 2008, with 42.41%; 2009, with 41.7%; 2019, with 39.7% and 2020, with 39.66%.

The press office of the Secretary of State for Military Police reported that “the actions of the Corporation are preceded and directed from information from the intelligence sector and from official bodies, such as the Institute of Public Security (ISP), being carried out based on technical protocols and defined by the legislation and judicial determinations in force”.

In the note, the Military Police also adds that, in 2022, the corporation arrested more than 19,500 criminals, seized more than 2,000 juvenile offenders and removed more than 3,300 firearms from the streets, including 187 rifles.

In absolute numbers, 1,728 operations were classified as disastrous and 5,122 as inefficient.

According to GENI data, there was, on average, one inefficient or disastrous operation per day over a 15-year period. In addition, 8,035 inefficient police operations were identified, 2,769 reasonably efficient and only 275 efficient.

According to the report, GENI researchers state that “the best evaluated police operations would have none killed or injured, and arrests and seizures (especially weapons) as a result, in addition to motivations associated with judicial and investigative procedures (such as arrest warrants or search and apprehension) or to meet the urgent demands of the population residing in favelas (such as those caused by disputes between criminal groups).

Conversely, the operations with the worst evaluation would be those with the most deaths and injuries, without arrests and seizures, and motivated by reactive actions such as retaliation and improvised pursuits”.

THE CNN also requested and awaits a position from the Civil Police and the Brazilian Armed Forces on the survey.

Operation in Complexo do Alemão

The operation in Complexo do Alemão, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, carried out on Thursday (21), is not included in the survey by the Study Group on New Illegalisms (GENI) at UFF.

In the assessment of sociologist Daniel Hirata, a member of the research, both this and the police operation carried out in May this year, in Vila da Penha, “are clearly disastrous”.

The operation in Complexo do Alemão was the fifth deadliest in the state’s history, with 18 dead after more than 11 hours of fighting.

While in this action three rifles, two pistols, a .50 machine gun and explosive devices were seized, in the most lethal police action in the city’s history, which took place in May last year, in Jacarezinho, 15 pistols, 6 rifles, 1 submachine gun and anti-aircraft ammunition.

In the Penha operation, 13 rifles, four pistols and 12 grenades were collected.

Four hundred agents were employed in the action in Complexo do Alemão. The number is double the contingent of police forces used in Jacarezinho.

The balance of weapons seizures was about three times lower in the comparison between the two confrontations.

The amount of weapons collected in Complexo do Alemão was also approximately twice as low as in Vila da Penha, which had 90 agents employed and left 23 people dead.

For sociologist Daniel Hirata, the amount of weapons seized in Alemão is irrelevant. Also according to him, operations in Rio usually have a very low number of arrests and seizures compared to the number of deaths.

“It is a pattern of the vast majority of police operations in Rio de Janeiro: high lethality and low effectiveness, and it is an absolute distortion. Operations are sometimes necessary, and must be done safely and with due care, in order to have greater numbers of arrests and seizures in relation to deaths. What we perceive is that these operations are not safe for the residents of these places and they have very low effectiveness in solving police work”, points out Hirata.

The sociologist believes that the Alemão operation is more similar to that of Jacarezinho than to that of Penha. This is because, according to him, the great “detonator” of the high lethality was the death of a policeman – a common point between the actions in Penha and Jacarezinho.

He calls the actions “revenge operations” and explains that the denomination is given when a new attack occurs after an agent has been killed. Also according to the researcher, this type of action is up to four times more lethal than operations motivated by search and seizure warrants.

In 2021, shortly after the Jacarezinho operation, GENI carried out a survey at the request of the CNN .

The study pointed out that, since 2007, there have been more deaths than apprehensions in police operations carried out in the area.

From that year until the last operation carried out in 2021, before the one that ended with 28 people dead, there were 290 police raids on the site. The raids left 186 people dead and another 139 injured. The number is greater than the total number of seizures of weapons, drugs and vehicles made in the favela in the same period, which was 167.