Rio Sees Disturbing Rise in Murders and Robberies

By Nelson Belen, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Troubling news from the latest Public Security Institute (ISP) report, released on Wednesday, November 30th, which showed that murder across Rio de Janeiro state increased 21 percent from January to October 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

In the ten-month period this year, there were 5,067 murders in the state, compared to the 2015 figure of 4,188. ISP data also showed a sobering increase in the number of people killed by police this year, 721 between January and October, compared to 645 people in 2015.

Civil and Military Police killed on duty, from January to October 2016, increased from 21 in 2015 to 28. Deaths arising from police intervention, such as resisting arrest, also rose from 569 in 2015 to 721 in 2016 through October, an increase of 26.7 percent.

In the month of October 2016 alone, there were 462 murders state-wide against 380 in October 2015, an increase of 21.6 percent.

The ISP report also showed alarming increases in robberies for 2016 so far. Between January and October 2016, Rio de Janeiro state recorded 104,302 street robberies, which includes robberies of pedestrians, cell phone theft, and robbery on public transportation, such as bus or metro (subway). According to the report, this averages to 347 robberies a day across the state.

The 2016 figure is over thirty thousand more than the 2015 figure of 70,582 in the same period, and, with two months still to go in the year, already dwarfs 2015’s total for the entire year, which was 73,242.

This past October showed the largest number of robberies of any single month of the year so far, with 12,476 in total, 8,980 pedestrian robberies, 1,952 cell phone robberies, and 1,544 robberies on public transportation, such as bus or metro (subway).

October’s total is a shocking 81.7 percent more than October 2015, when a relatively low in comparison, 6,868 robberies were reported.