Brazil´s Congress Considers Reducing Governors’ Power Over State and Civil Police

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Congress is preparing to vote on two Civil and State Police framework bills that limit the power of governors over the police forces of states and the Federal District.

The bills introduce changes in the police structure, such as the creation of the rank of general, currently exclusive to the Armed Forces, for State Police (PM) officers, and the formation of a National Civil Police Council linked to the federal government. [State Police wear uniforms and have military ranks, where the highest is “colonel”. The Civil Police perform all criminal investigations, and are headed by detectives.]

The new model is advocated by government allies as President Jair Bolsonaro hardens the public safety discourse to leverage his popularity in the second half of his term.

The bills limit governors’ political control over the police by establishing a two-year term for commanding-generals and detective-superintendents and setting terms for their dismissal before their term. In the PM’s case, the proposal is for the commander’s appointment to emerge from a three-name list drawn up by officers. The bill provides for dismissal, at the governor’s initiative, to be “justified and for a duly evidenced relevant reason”.

In the Civil Police, the detective-superintendent may be directly elected by the governor from among higher-ranking officers. However, a “justified” dismissal must be approved by the Legislative Assembly or District Chamber, in an absolute majority vote cast by deputies.

These measures are perceived by the police as a way of protecting the forces from political interference and persecution. However, experts alert that excessive administrative and financial autonomy – and even operational autonomy, as proposed for the PMs – could produce a parallel power project. According to them, governors become “hostage” to commanders.

Sociologist Luis Flávio Sapori, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-MG), considers that the proposals are ideologically in line with the Bolsonaro government. “What is about to be voted in Congress is a setback, and Brazilian society is unaware of this. They are internal agreements. The bill is very much in line with the Bolsonaro government’s perspective: there is a clear ideological alignment with greater militarization and greater autonomy of the armed forces in relation to political leadership,” said Sapori.

According to the researcher, this creates a serious problem for governors, “an absurd political and administrative autonomy”. “The PM becomes an organization with no political or civil control, closer to the Armed Forces model and away from citizens. The PMs are being controlled by intearnal corporate interests, to have profits, and moving away from society,” he observed.

The greatest evidence of this, according to Sapori, is the proposal to create a new hierarchical rank, equivalent to the rank of general-officers, by “symmetry” with the pattern of the Armed Forces. Accordingly, there would be three ranks: the top would be the lieutenant-general, followed by the major-general and the brigadier-general. Currently, the PM hierarchy extends to senior officers; the top rank is that of colonel. While in the Air Force, the Army and the Navy, commanders are considered generals, in the State Police and the Fire Brigade they are colonels.

“No matter how relevant and as much as they are state institutions, and not government, the police are the executors of public policy and governors must have control to establish the rules and who the managers will be. Politics is neither the Judiciary nor the Prosecutor’s Office. A mandate will not solve persecution,” said attorney Isabel Figueiredo, consultant to the Brazilian Public Safety Forum and former director of Education and Research at the National Secretariat of Public Safety (SENASP), a body of the Ministry of Justice.

An organization consulted for the bill, the National Federation of State and Federal District Military Officers (FENEME) argues that similarity must be present because police and military firefighters comprise the Army’s backup and reserve force. Police legislation dates from 1969 and, according to FENEME, laws passed in states – without national standardization – ultimately impair the police because of “private interests”. The federation compares the situation of the state military with that of attorneys, the Prosecutor’s Office and the judiciary, classes within the justice system that have framework laws.

Despite the suggested limitation to freedom of choice and dismissal, the organization claims that governors do not lose autonomy over the PM, which remains bound to the states, and that there is “no ideological or partisan premise” in the bill.

Government takes part in the bills’ debate

The Planalto Palace has been consulted and has even offered suggestions for framework bills since the term of ex-Minister of Justice Sérgio Moro. Asked about political support for the bills, the current Minister of Justice and Public Safety André Mendonça said that “the points of discussion are under consideration”.

The Ministry confirmed that meetings were held with national councils, associations and state police unions to discuss and hear suggestions to the text.

In the 2018 elections, Bolsonaro, a retired Army captain, embraced the discourse of hardening public safety and valuing police officers, a campaign platform that also pushed the class to be represented in the Legislative branch.

Last year, a PM riot in the state of Ceará exposed the underlying pro-Bolsonaro politicization among State Police officers. The illegal strike was not condemned by the President and was directed against Camilo Santana’s (PT) left-wing government, who denounced “partisanship” among the troops. In August, a survey by the Brazilian Public Safety Forum and the digital intelligence company Decode identified that 41% of PM officers interacted in Bolsonarist virtual environments on Facebook and 25% of them echoed radical ideas.

In December 2019, Congress passed a social security reform proposal for the Armed Forces, authored by the Bolsonaro government, and equated the rules with state police and military firefighters, through lobbying by commanders and deputies elected by the vote of public security professionals. The law was sanctioned with no veto by Bolsonaro.

In late 2020, the President also signed, for the second consecutive year, a Christmas pardon for security agents convicted of crimes of negligence – those committed without intent. The President also made wage readjustments in May during the Covid-19 pandemic to security forces in the Federal District, Amapá, Rondônia and Roraima, while other civil servants would have their salaries frozen. Moreover, he became a regular attendee at police officers’ graduations and also often attends wakes or honors killed police officers on social media.

Uniform color and promotion rule are obstacles

Among the two framework laws, the most politically advanced project is the PMs’. However, the current text has not yet been formally submitted to the Chamber of Deputies.

The bill’s rapporteur is federal deputy Capitão Augusto (PL-SP), leader of the congressional ‘bullet bench’ – which comprises some 300 legislators – and a government ally. There was an agreement with Chamber president Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ) to vote on the bill still last year, but the pandemic and municipal elections deferred the agenda. Moreover, there is a lack of consensus on a good part of the planned changes, among them the national standardization of vehicles and uniforms.

Captain Augusto accepts that his text should still undergo changes. For instance, he pointed out the Minas Gerais PM’s resistance to the adoption of a national standard uniform different from the current one, in khaki color, and the São Paulo PM’s resistance in the demand for a higher education course for admission to the force – as is the case with the Civil Police.

There are different promotion criteria and the PMs have been granted career benefits similar to those of civil servants. If altered by a framework law of national scope, this group could lose out.

“It is difficult to reach consensus. There are still some edges to be trimmed to have the text ready, but if I lack consensus, I will ask it to be scheduled anyway. We remove what is not agreed upon and pass the rest,” said Captain Augusto. “Since the Constitution, we have been waiting for a basic framework law for 32 years.”