Rio de Janeiro Not Yet Eligible for Federal Public Safety Funding

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The general coordinator of the National Secretariat of Public Safety (SENASP) of the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, Colonel Luis Claudio Laviano, pointed out on Monday, August 19th, in a public hearing in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ) that the state is not yet eligible to receive funds from the National Fund for Public Safety (FNSP), which was established by federal law in 2018.

According to Laviano, only the state of Amapá and the Federal District now meet the requirements of the Single System of Public Safety (SUSP) for the transfer. “If Rio adapts to the standards, it may receive approximately R$12 million (US$3 million) for the public safety area this year,” he said during the hearing, in the Special Commission of the State Plan for Public Safety of ALERJ.

In order to be eligible for the fund’s resources, the state needs to set up a council to deal with the transferred funds — following the Unified Public Safety System’s guidelines: to maintain an up-to-the-minute data network, and to implement a State Public Safety Fund that will provide for greater transparency in the transfer of funds.

In addition, a State Safety Plan must be implemented over the next two years. The states must adapt to the law by November 29th.

Martha Rocha (PDT), the president of ALERJ’ s Public Safety Commission, said that the figure represents an increase of twenty percent in the budget for the Civil and State Police.

“The investments will be made along the lines determined by SUSP, but the guidelines presented by the system are very good. This will ensure the allocation of resources to key areas. As, for instance, qualification of civil servants, housing programs, a unified register as a database, and in technology. I’m sure there will be projects in the security forces that may be perfectly adapted to the guidelines presented,” she explained.

Integration

For Andrea Amin, coordinator of the Public Safety Specialized Action Group (GAESP) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ), the SUSP plays a more significant role than transferring resources to the states.

It ensures the inclusion of data, provides policies to improve the quality of life of security agents, and provides greater transparency to the transfer of funds.

“It is established because the Constitution did not provide for an integrated public safety system between the states and the federal government. The fund’s resource will not support the entire public safety in all states, but it will contribute to the integration of data,” she stressed.

The prosecutor further noted that violence in Rio de Janeiro has an impact on other states.

“The data we have may be relevant to Amazonas or Mato Grosso, for instance. In other words, the actions need to be minimally coordinated so that one state does not take an adversarial stance that causes a collateral effect in another state. This system is extremely significant for economic practices and the development of state policy and no longer for the government as we are accustomed to witnessing,” concluded the prosecutor.