They don't feel any different, but they are making all the difference in Rio de Janeiro's Military Police force. Even though they are a minority, they are now rising to command positions. According to PMERJ General Commander Colonel Mário Sérgio, with the exception of only a few roles that may engage in armed confrontation, all doors are open to women at the PMERJ, and they are key to Rio de Janeiro's UPPs.
The population of Belo Horizonte has a new crime fighting tool in the city, virtual crime maps offering data on homicides in the city. Launched two months ago, the capital of Brazil's Minas Gerais state hopes the Programa Virtual de Georreferenciamento de Homicídios da Secretaria de Estado da Defesa Social (SEDS) will aid police officers and communities to feel safer and be safer.
It's the last day of school, and just before children go off on vacations, they get an unusual visit: two police officers and a former-drug trafficker. The members of the Papo de Responsa program want to give kids an opportunity to have a free conversation on topics that are usually too constrained by simplistic messages. The question is, what do you do with your life?
Criminals are not madmen, they are pragmatic and no different from everyone else. But prisons are 'graduate courses in crime', these and other concerns were expressed from the inside out, by people who work in the system and think there is great need for reform. The topic was discussed at a recent seminar on Crime and Security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
"A self perpetuating, constantly expanding disaster" is how a police officer with 26 years experience sees the war on drugs, it penalizes the underpriviledged, generates violence, pushes people into joblessness and enables violence and needless deaths. Jack Cole took a stand, co-founding LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Proibition, showing that less and less professionals in law enforcement are happy to keep quiet about their misgivings.
Homicides have dropped by 35% and robberies 30% in this city in the sertão of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. The data compares the first semester of 2009 to the first semester of 2008. The number of homicide investigations completed and forwarded to the judiciary increased in 314% in the same period. An integration of the two police forces, town hall, the judiciary and civil society are key for such heartening results.
A Minas Gerais reentry project for ex-convicts offers them not only
courses and job training, but now allied to a new law, tangible job
prospects. The law enacted two weeks ago, provides state subsidies for
companies that employ ex-convicts, in a bid to curb recidivism and cut
down on detention expenses.
Police officers often die in the line of duty in Rio de Janeiro, and even when off duty. But there are other victims that often remain anonymous: The high numbers of youths killed by law enforcement during police actions. These deaths, classified as "resisting an officer" (Auto de Resistência), rarely reach the courts of law. But a new book, written by the family members of 18 victims of police violence, hopes to shed new light on this little known topic.
The second meeting of the Brazilian Commission on Drugs and Democracy scheduled for the last week of October, will focus on two deleterious aspects of the traffic in illegal drugs and the war on drugs policy: urban violence and institutional corruption.
Stress among security professionals in Brazil is such that 15 years of work of a military police officer would correspond to about 30 years of stress in any other field. Military police officers are only now being evaluated for stress levels and programs to evaluate, control and monitor stress levels are the next step to improve the quality of life for those who protect everyone else's way of life.
Criminals are not madmen, they are pragmatic and no different from everyone else. But prisons are 'graduate courses in crime', these and other concerns were expressed from the inside out, by people who work in the system and think there is great need for reform. The topic was discussed at a recent seminar on Crime and Security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
"A self perpetuating, constantly expanding disaster" is how a police officer with 26 years experience sees the war on drugs, it penalizes the underpriviledged, generates violence, pushes people into joblessness and enables violence and needless deaths. Jack Cole took a stand, co-founding LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Proibition, showing that less and less professionals in law enforcement are happy to keep quiet about their misgivings.
Homicides have dropped by 35% and robberies 30% in this city in the sertão of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. The data compares the first semester of 2009 to the first semester of 2008. The number of homicide investigations completed and forwarded to the judiciary increased in 314% in the same period. An integration of the two police forces, town hall, the judiciary and civil society are key for such heartening results.
