The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, has criticised police in Brazil for their involvement in extra-judicial killings. Speaking at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro on 14 November, he said there was strong evidence that many of 694 deaths caused by police between January and June 2007 in Rio de Janeiro were extrajudicial killings. He said the police had recorded the events as ‘acts of resistance followed by death,’ which was ‘very often a euphemism for extrajudicial executions.’

Mr Alston also expressed concern that low police salaries encourage corruption, and lead many off-duty police and former officers to form vigilante groups, death squads and militias. He recommended better police salaries as one area for improvement. A report issued by Amnesty International in May 2007 also recognised that the Brazilian police needed better conditions, noting that they were poorly trained and resourced.

Brazilian police also often engage in gunfire with Rio’s heavily armed drug gangs, which operate from the city’s shanty towns or favelas. But innocent civilians are frequently caught in the crossfire.

An initiative to promote best practices in Brazilian policing is the annual Good Policing award from Sou da Paz, an IANSA member in the state of São Paulo. The award has proven so successful that it has been replicated in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.