By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – There were 462 homicides in Rio de Janeiro state in the month of November, according to the Institute of Public Security of the State of Rio de Janeiro (ISP). That is more than fifteen homicides per day last month, an increase of 36.5 percent in relation to the same period last year.
The report shows that security officials, civilians and military police officers, also killed a significantly higher number of people during the eleven-month period.
While in the first eleven months of 2015, 616 people were killed by police, in 2016 that number jumped to 2016.
Civilian and military Officers who died while on duty also increased from January to November from 23 in 2015 to 36 in 2016.
Julita Lemgruber, coordinator of the Center for Studies on Security and Citizenship at Candido Mendes University (CESeC / UCAM), told O Globo that the figures show that the state’s public security policy, based on Police Pacifying Unites (UPP) are not working despite the state’s efforts to say that it is a success. “Until recently, this security policy was celebrated, there was talk about taking it to other cities in the state,” said Lemgruber.
“The UPP faces a typical Brazilian problem: our security did face reforms that would allow us greater capacity to deal with crimes. States are [now financially] broke, police are at the limit of their energies and, paradoxically, the necessary public measures are not implemented,” agrees Renato Sérgio de Lima, president of the Brazilian Forum of Public Security.
The ISP also released data on homicides in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and one of the main destinations for foreign tourists coming to Brazil. Homicides during the month of November totaled a staggering 123, more than four per day.
In the comparison with October, when there were 462 homicide victims throughout the state, the numbers of the ISP remained stable, but in the first eleven months of the year, from January through the end of November, there is already an accumulated 4.572 homicides in the state, an increase by 19.7 percent in comparison to the same period last year.