In 2021, police operations in states controlled by the Public Safety Observatories Network killed at least five blacks daily. The report “Pele Target: The color that the police erase” released last Thursday (17) was prepared on the basis of data from the security secretariats and received through the LAI (Access to Information Law).

The black population makes up the vast majority of those killed in police operations. Photo: Divulgation/Pixabay/ND

In 2021, police operations in Bahia, Ceara, Maranhao, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo killed 3,290 people. Of these, 2,154 victims (65%) were black – using the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) criterion as a benchmark, which considers blacks to be the sum of browns and blacks.

The researchers warn that the number is higher because Maranhao does not record the color of the victims’ skin, and there are many underreportings in other states, reaching as high as 69% in Ceara.

“Considering only cases with racial information, it is noted that the percentage of blacks killed by police is much higher than the presence of blacks in the population in all monitored states,” the network said in a statement.

The state with the highest absolute number of victims during the reporting period was Rio de Janeiro, where 1,060 blacks were killed, she said. The highest proportion of blacks among the dead was noted in Bahia: 98%.

massacres

According to the report, Rio records two deaths of blacks killed by police per day and is the state with the highest number of massacres. Of the 57 police reports with three or more victims, 30 of them are all black. There were 155 victims in total, of which 138 were black or brown.

Rio de Janeiro and São Goncalo are the municipalities with the most murders of blacks in the state, followed by five others in Baixada Fluminense: Duque de Caxias, Belford Roxo, São Juan de Meriti, Japeri and Nova Iguazu. In the capital, the three most lethal black safe havens are Costa Barros, Jacarezinho/Meyer, and Realengo/Bangu.

According to the bulletin, in the state of Bahia every 24 hours, the police kill a black man. There were 603 black deaths last year. The state is the deadliest in the Northeast and has the highest absolute number of deaths in the region (nationally second only to Rio).

“In the capital of the state of Bahia, 299 people died at the hands of state agents, and only one of these people was not black. Of the ten highest-performing districts in the municipality, nine are predominantly black. The area of ​​Castelo Branco with the most deaths, with 14 records. When we look at the state, El Salvador, Feira de Santana and Camasari are the municipalities where the police kill the most blacks,” the network explained.

Monitoring

The state of Pernambuco has the second-highest percentage of blacks killed among the seven controlled by the network, at 96%. Every four days, the police kill a black man. These figures are due to the situation in Recife, where all those killed by police in 2021 were black. The capital is the municipality with the most cases, followed by Caruara, Cabo de Santo Agostinho and Paulista.

In Piauí, the percentage of blacks killed by the police is 75%, and in the capital, where this fatality is concentrated, it reaches 83%. The frequency of these deaths is higher in Terezin. Cases are more evident on the outskirts of the capital.

In Ceara, among the color-identification incidents of the victims, 92% of the fatalities were black, with one death every three days. “Caucaia, ranked last year as the most violent city in Brazil, sits at the top of the municipalities where police most often kill blacks in Ceará,” the survey said.

“The state of São Paulo has seen a consistent decline in police deaths in recent months. The use of cameras on agent uniforms drastically reduced the number of deaths caused by these professionals, but the color of the dead remained unchanged: 69% were black. Every 72 hours, a black person is killed,” the study emphasizes.

The capital São Paulo has the highest concentration of cases, followed by Guarulhos and Guaruja, mostly in peripheral regions. In the city of Sao Paulo, the deadliest places for blacks are Jardim Sao Luis, Guayanaces, Capao Redondo, Iguatemi, Sacoma, and Vila Andrade.

Public Safety Observatories Network coordinator Sylvia Ramos pointed out that in all locations, the number of blacks among the victims exceeds the percentage of this group in the population. “The question is: what needs to be done to make the police understand that racism is an evil that affects their corporations and that they need to fight?”.

secretariat version

The State Secretariat of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro informed that there is no racial bias in the performance of the corporation’s missions and that actions to combat organized crime are planned on the basis of intelligence information, with a view to saving lives.

The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police, on the other hand, stated that they were unaware of the methodology used in the study and the possibility of data traceability, and that the institution’s operational activities are based on tripod intelligence, investigation and actions.

The Secretariat of Public Security of the State of Bahia indicated that police operations are carried out in accordance with criteria such as crime slick (number of police actions), intelligence activities to identify possible criminal groups, as well as complaints.

“There is no type of targeting related to race or social status,” the note says. The folder also emphasizes that the police are trained to save lives and that all cases of confrontation, especially death, are thoroughly investigated by the police.

The São Paulo Public Security Secretariat said police fatalities have dropped by 65.6% in units that use body cameras. In addition, she stated that she had taken measures to reduce lethality, such as the use of non-lethal weapons.

Another point noted is the “high efficiency of internal affairs”, as well as the creation in December 2021 of the Commission for the supervision of lethality. The secretariat also reported that in military police schools, the subject “Human Rights and Actions” studies anti-racist actions.

The Secretariat of Public Security of Maranhao reported that due to the lack of registration of the race of the victims, this is an obstacle that all states face. “For many years, the racial identity of the victims was not included in the incident report, which is not exclusive to Maranhao. Therefore, the security secretariats do not use this registration screen, but are already planning a modification to meet this demand,” the note emphasizes.

He added that he was not aware of the data collection methodology used by the Public Safety Observatories Network “due to the lack of sources, methods, scientific knowledge, without taking into account a number of other aspects that are required for such studies.”

The Secretary of Social Protection of Pernambuco explained that year after year, the state’s security forces have reduced the number of deaths due to confrontation with the police. “In 2021, for example, there were 11 fewer deaths compared to 2020. Of the total victims last year, 90.4% were brown people, 5.7% were black and 3.8% were white,” the note said.

“First of all, it is necessary to understand that tampering deaths involve a large part of the confrontation in the efforts of the police to combat drug trafficking and armed criminal groups. Often in such cases it is not even possible to see the face or discern the race of these people and groups who seek to dominate communities and territories through violence,” the folder says.

According to the secretariat, the mission of the police force, which consists of citizens of all races, especially blacks and browns, is to ensure law, order and tranquility among the population. “In these high-risk operations, public safety agents also die in the line of duty. Whenever deaths occur in these clashes, serious and technical criminal and administrative investigations are carried out, respectively, by the civil police and the internal affairs authorities to determine whether there has been negligence, abuse of power or deceit on the part of the public agent.” .

The Secretariat of Public Safety of Piaui said that it does not comment on data from surveys conducted by other institutions and bodies.

A message from Agência Brasil has contacted the Ceara Security Secretariat and is awaiting a response.