Brazil

AuthorGeorge Kurian
Pages238-245

Page 238

Official country name: Federative Republic of Brazil

Capital: Brasíilia

Geographic description: The largest country in South America, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean eastward to the headwaters of the Amazon River; it touches the borders of every country in South America except Chile and Ecuador

Population: 186,112,794 (est. 2005)

Brazil
LAW ENFORCEMENT
History

Police in Brazil originate from the colonial period. After Brazil's discovery, Portugal did not show immediate interest in the new land and did not abandon the land due to constant invasion by foreigners, notably the French.

The first expeditions focused on patrolling the coast rather than on colonizing the land. However, some facilities were installed along the coast, thus leaving settlers to guarantee Portugal's ownership. Those settlers played a multiple role as harvesters, members of a defense force, and police officers.

The first organized troop was settled in the town of São Vicente in 1542 and its missions meant to expel a Spanish force that threatened the Capitany. Further on, three troop lines in the colony were formed: The first one was paid and its aim was external defense. The second, also paid, had the role of internal safety, or the police. And the third one, formed by volunteers, helped to supply the failures of the two previous ones. The three were composed of citizens who, when not needed for internal or external services, would exercise their usual activities: they were harvesters, tradesmen, and teachers. During the colonial period, although there were these divisions in lines, there was no structural difference among the troops of external defense and maintenance of the internal order.

The constant wars with the Spanish colonies, which extended beyond their independence and the boring life of the colony before and of the vice kingdom afterward, would foster the use of military people in internal actions (rare ones) and in external actions (more frequent ones).

Until the early nineteenth century the second- and third-line troops would play the role of the police in the São Paulo Capitany. They were well-trained and well-dressed units.

The French Influence in the Creation of the Military Police

In seventeenth-century France the military people were in charge of the security in general (internal and external). They were the marshals and were

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active in France until the eighteenth century (Illuminism). Then came the Human Rights Declaration in 1789 and its twelfth article, which created a "public force" to guarantee the rights set in the declaration. Napoléon Bonaparte's troops would spread the notion of those troops to all of Europe. Inspired by the French police, Portugal created the Royal Police. And so, when the Portuguese royal family came to Brazil, they brought along with them the Royal Police, which was reorganized and named the Court Police (Rio de Janeiro). Independence disorganized the Royal Police. Later on, the Regency government passed a law on October 9, 1831, that created the Body of Permanent Municipality in the Court and the same was done in the provinces. The former Royal Police was reorganized, but it was also the birth of the military police.

Federal Police History

In March 1944, in the old capital of the republic, Rio de Janeiro, the Federal District Police was transformed into the Districto Federal Segurança Pública (DFSP; Public Security Federal Department). Although it had the name "federal," the DFSP only performed in the area of the federal district, as regards the public safety performing at national level only in the area of maritime police, air police, and borders.

In mid-1946 the tasks of the DFSP were extended to all the national territory in some cases, such as the clandestine commerce of drugs and crimes against the public faith, when it was the National Revenue Service interest. However, with the new federal constitution, which was passed on September 18, 1946, the states began to have powers to fulfill their needs of government and administration and thus considered the existence of a safety department with national performance as a kind of limitation of this autonomy.

With the move of the federal capital in 1960, the DFSP was transferred to Brasília, and so the state of Guanabara remained with the public safety services as well as the great majority of its active personnel. Due to the scarcity of personnel, the DFSP had to be restructured, and the police departments in England, the United States, and Canada served as models. By November 16, 1964, it had attributions in all the national territory. In 1967 the DFSP changed its name, and the Departamento de Polícia Federal (DPF; Federal Police Department) emerged, as per article 210 of Decree Law Number 200.

Fire Brigade History

The province capital was as large as three hills and construction began to become more valuable. The idea of how to fight possible fires began to be analyzed. In case of fire, women, men, and children would stand in line and from the nearest well they would pass water buckets hand to hand until they reached the fire location. In 1851 the first municipal regulations regarding fighting fire were passed, due to a fire that had occurred in December 1850. Two pumps were acquired, which were not used until 1862, because in those twelve years, no fire had occurred. On March 10, 1889, a team to fight fires was set up in the capital of the State of São Paulo, it was made up of twenty men.

The fire brigade began to expand in the country in 1943, by making agreements with the municipalities and an organizational process at the state level began. At that time, there were 1,212 active officials.

In 1959 the radio network was inaugurated, thus making communication among the cars and headquarters easier, the cars could be guided in the best way to take, and how the fire was evolving; it also centralized the requests and distributed them in a rational manner among the posts. One year later, the alarm boxes were inactivated, but the telephone was not fulfilling all the needs of the population. There were just a few lines and the numbers were not easy to memorize. After 23 years, the emergency line 193 would be adopted.

In 1964, the School Company was inaugurated and the course for Officers was created. In 1967 the Central Station was demolished and a new one built.

Due to two big catastrophic fires that occurred in São Paulo in the Andraus Building (1972) and Joelma Building (1974), hundreds of lives were lost. Because of this, auto-pumps were imported, as well as auto-platforms, command and support vehicles and all cars had radios installed besides an improvement of legal requirements regarding fire prevention.

In 1990, to improve the quality of prehospital assistance in salvage events, a rescue system was implemented in Greater São Paulo and in more than 14 municipalities, formed by personnel, specialized vehicles, and helicopter support.

Federal Road Police History

Federal Road Police was created by the Brazilian president Washington Luiz on July 24, 1928, by means of the Decree Law Number 18.323, which defined the traffic rules at that time. In 1935 Antonio Felix Filho, who was considered the first patrol man, was called by the administrator, Natal Crosato, to organize the inspection services on Rio de Janeiro-Petropolis, Rio-São Paulo, and Uniao Industria roads.

At that time, the heavy rains demanded better road signs and some detours and red lamps were used during the night. Filho, with Carlos Rocha Miranda, founded the first police group called the Traffic Inspectors in 1935.

In December 1945 Decree Law Number 8.463 (also known as Jopert Law) created the National Department of Roads and in came the denomination of Federal Road Police.

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State Road Police History

On January 10, as per State Decree Number 17.868, the state, at that time being governed by Ademar Pereira de Barros, the Road Police Patrol was created. It consisted of sixty men and was commanded by Lieutenant Jose de Pina Figueiredo, who belonged to the Public Forces, which were responsible for inspecting the recently inaugurated Anchieta Road.

From November 16, 1962, on, the Road Police became a fraction of the Paulista Police, being called Road Police Inspection, then the Force of Road Police, and finally Road Police Inspection Command.

Directly subordinate to the Interior Police Command, its jurisdiction comprises all the entire road network in the state of São Paulo. The network is divided into three units: the first BPRv (located in São Bernardo do Campo City), the second BPRv (located in Bauru City), and...

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