Brazilian congressional representation and media monopoly in post-authoritarian democracy

Police Reform in Post-Authoritarian Brazil

A majority of new democracies entail an unbelievable illogicality of an immensely feeble citizenship coalesced with a stern description of the constitutional guarantees. In order to explicate this disparity it would be prudent to contemplate the significance of political institutions regarding representation of citizen, which were prevalent subsequent to the military establishments attributed as troublesome and a majority of the new restrictions. A few defined in the autocratic establishment, were implemented by quite a few new establishments prominently by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 (Pinheiro, 1996).

The prominence out of such institutions of Brazil were the excessive illustration of lesser populated regions on the contrary to the regions with greater population: Sao Paulo in recent times incorporates 60 Congressmen (which is analogous to 11.9% of the entire constituents of a Congress) depicting a voting strength of 20,774,991. This strength makes up 21.9% of the entire voting population (voting population incorporates above 94 million population) (Pinheiro, 1996).

On the contrary, in Roraima the voting strength incorporates 8 Congressmen (which is analogous to 1.6% of the entire constituents of a Congress) depicting a voting strength of 119,399 which is 0.1% of the entire voting population of the nation. The regions which are excessively illustrated entail the Northeast and Northern regions which entail horrendous social indicators along with the undeniable presence of the constituents associated to social autocracy due to the persistent existence of oligarchic politicians, who have tenaciously been in authority since 1964. These regions incorporate a hefty magnitude of illiteracy out of their respective population: 46% are present in the Northeastern region and 35% are present in the North region. The illiteracy rates of Northeastern and Northern regions are very immense in contrast to the illiteracy rates of other regions (Pinheiro, 1996) which are:

Maranhao, 21.68%

Sergipe, 23.30%

Paraiba, 21.64%

Alagoas, 23.22%

Rio de Janeiro, 3.09%

Sao Paulo, 3.07%

These regions are specifically those vicinities where liberated access to the resources of information and intelligibility is immensely restricted due to the fact that the local establishment has the authority on information mediums like radio and television through an acknowledgment of both the press and the national government. A practice of oligopoly is maintained in the television media as eight private clusters possess the authority on a nationwide scale. A majority of acknowledgments are conferred out of the individuals of the same family in order to deceive the stipulation of the law which prevents from having more than ten acknowledgements of the television medium. Majority of the authorities in the vicinities of Northeastern and Northern regions are established in consensus with the electronic media entities and the press: senators and ministers, previous presidents, numerous previous governors, from these regions possess acknowledgements of radio, in a few instances also of newspaper, and television (Pinheiro, 1996).

Such restrictions in the system of representation impose unswerving outcomes regarding citizen involvement due to the fact that such biased practices tend to generate sturdy problems which discourage human improvement in certain communities along with impeding the prospect of formulating the involvement of civil society. Pathology or fatality are not the basis of the under development of these two regions (Pinheiro, 1996).

It is rather the substantial outcome obtained by the management of the economic reserves (privatization of the state budgets by means of corruption) and the preservation of societal controls of political practice (judicial institutions, representation, police, media access) by the governing establishment. Social trepidations of illiteracy, penury, endemics are the outcomes of the continuous existence of a democratic regime. These influential figures and their activities are uncontested by the civil society submitted to illegitimate authorities and in majority of the instances to terror; non-accountability, exemption from lawful proceedings, and non-transparency are the basic foundation of the economical and conventional political supremacy (Pinheiro, 1996).

"Accountability" is the most vital constituent which is absent in these new democracies, its absence impose impasses on the effectual implementation of lawful regulations due to the fact that this constituent highlights that each and every governmental personnel, irrespective of their rank, should be held liable for their activities. As examined by Alfred Stepan, in contemporary political practice, accountability refers that every financial document should be scrutinized on regular basis and the governmental personnel who are utilizing public finances should pursue clear methodologies. Furthermore, accountability also includes that any governmental personnel who utilize national reserves as their own should be held liable for their activities and consequently should be imprisoned (Linz and Stepan 1994 as cited in Pinheiro, 1996).

Influential economic and political clusters, by means of their authority on the electronic media, impose hindrance on transparency and generate impediments in order to debilitate those institutions which play an active part in the formulation and implementation of constitutional guarantees. This ultimately propels the establishment to be liable for their respective activities to the civil society. The judicial body is intentionally not uncovered to any form of exterior authority of administrative profits of expenditures, which are regularly forwarded to the authorities of State government. The State public prosecutors are also refrained in performing their legitimate activities. The police department in majority of the nations is comprehensively commanded by the establishment. Hence, the incapability of a particular State in making the governmental personnel liable and to fortify political institutions, and in majority of the instances coalesced with corruption is an observable fact which has the tendency of influencing merged and new democracies (Pinheiro, 1996).

The immensely flimsy merging of the democratic institutions, devoid of an effectual accountability methodology imposes an essential outcome which grants immunity from the lawful proceedings to the organized crimes and crimes committed by the establishment (Pinheiro, 1996).

Hence, we must comprehend that in majority of the instances a democracy exists which is devoid of the ideology of citizenship regardless of the existence of democratic authority and the unambiguous elucidation of constitutional guarantees. The nonexistence of an effectual mobilization confines significantly the influence which a proficient mobilization could have imposed in altering the basics of political power. A few of the influential individuals, chiefly belonging to underdeveloped regions, possess the viewpoint that if democratic involvement and citizenship emerges as an actuality then it will unavoidably guide to insistence for tedious overdue and economical alteration. In majority of the instances due to the flaws of the political institutions, the obstruction of involvement outside the elections instigated by local influential individuals and state security services propels the pervasiveness of clienteles. This, in turn leads to the influential individuals' opposition to the formulation of sturdy and self-governing union by the poorer sections of the community themselves (Cammack 1994 as cited in Pinheiro, 1996).

Problem Statement

The police department of Brazil is acknowledged to be a prominent one as far as brutality and corruption around the globe is concerned. Since the last twenty years, the police department has executed numerous ferocious operations, for instance murdering eight sleeping children on the pathway of Candelaria Church belonging to Rio de Janeiro in 1993, and a massacre in Carandiru which entailed 111 inmates of Sao Paulo in the year 1992. A majority of these instances of using deadly forces deliberately or extrajudicial killings, the personnel of police department who were engaged in these events were not penalized due to the fact that they presented a justification of "self-defense," whilst majority of the cases were not presented in front of the magistrates. The problems imposed by the police department are not just restricted to extrajudicial assassinations; they are also engaged with the criminal networks. Along with possessing such immoral and illicit conduct they are also inept in defending the well-being of the entire population dwelling in Brazil (Pinheiro, 1996).

An intense stipulation from the civil society for their protection has propelled the policymakers in recommending alterations in the police department. It has been noticed that after the conversion towards democracy, the restructuring of police department has been the highest priority for the Brazilian establishment. Encountering a disquieting intensity of crime and violence chiefly in metropolitan vicinities subsequent to the termination of the armed forces establishment, numerous restructuring stances have been proposed which are intended towards eradicating this problem not only at a federal level but also at State level. The query which arises from the preceding statement is: why the evolution in the restructuring of police department is slow paced in contrast to the democracy of Brazil for the past twenty five years? (Pinheiro, 1996)

Purpose of the study

Illustrating on quite minute but expanding studies and investigations regarding the politics of policing in Latin America, this particular study intends to explicate the basis due to which the restructuring of police department is slow paced in contrast to Brazil's democracy for the past twenty five years.

Significance of the study

This particular research will bear considerable worth for the police departments in Brazil, due to the fact that this particular study will encompass the concept of challenges, problems and job performance of the police departments, the following two points will be focused on:

1) The conclusions deduced from this particular study will extend the notion regarding the developmental manipulations of policing routines.

2) This particular research will also be of immense help for policy formulators in metropolitan police departments and in police departments of small vicinities, in making effectual judgment regarding relevant development.

3) The material along with the conclusion of this particular study will certainly enhance and modernize the methodologies of the investigations linked to job performance and challenges related to police development in Brazil.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Section 1: Police and Crime in Brazil

Since the last ten years the focus of the Brazilian establishment concerning the protection of the civil society has been on the conglomeration out of three immense spectrums: (a) the police department, essential constituent of numerous problems and possibly the recurrent performer in every region of urban space; (b) violent urban crime, by all the insinuations of distribution and social disarray; (c) urban space, highlights on omission, idiosyncrasy and mismanagement. In this particular framework, a vital query arises which highlights: what has been the police department's functioning in controlling the violence activities occurring in the urban vicinities of Brazil? Only a few public agencies possess immeasurable involvement in the sundry practice of the cities, and recurrent dealings with the population, like the police. This particular study will investigate the link between these three facets of public safety and protection (Filho et al., 2005).

Since the last few years the focus of the Brazilian establishment concerning the protection of the civil society has rotated around three vital matters: (a) the police department, essential constituent of numerous problems and possibly the recurrent performer in every region of urban space; (b) violent urban criminality, as depicted through communal distribution and disarray; (c) urban space with respect to mismanagement, marginality and exclusion.

The prevalent situation of violent and criminal activities in metropolitan regions indicates the materialization of predatory crimes. The expansion in organized crime has been witnessed in numerous instances of urban violence. This particular fact is the backdrop for the augmenting rate of violent crimes in Brazil's chief metropolitan regions. The localities of Rio de Janeiro and the constituency of Sao Paulo entail 40% of the homicides present in Brazil, even though they are actually 18% of the aggregate population of the nation. An important facet of this observable fact is the urban practice where the crimes take place, which is immensely liable for this expansion. Approximately 20% of this form of crime takes place in below 2% of the geographical region of metropolitan vicinity. Consequently, the Brazilian metropolitan problem had to entail violence as a vital and pertinent hindrance to the metropolitan regions' development and planning.

Modern criminological literature and manuscripts have attributed urban ecology as an essential component in the distribution of a few forms of crimes. "Zip Law" is the commonly implemented methodology on the basis of which the crimes are segregated in the urban spaces. This methodology elucidates that a minor quantity of locality incorporates a hefty amount of crimes. For instance, in Belo Horizonte approximately 8 out of the 2,500 surveyed regions entailed above 10% of the violent crime of the total crimes of the city. So, what are these focal points about? What are the influential components that form the basis of these crime-based regions? (Beato et al., 2005)

Lastly, a general agreement is prevalent contemporarily which states that, regardless of the socioeconomic and environmental components, the police department should realize its obligations and liabilities in curtailing and eradicating crimes from the concerned regions. In recent times, the recurrent stipulation regarding police department's restructuring is being accentuated on intercession in constitutional regulations along with administration transformation. The chief basis of these dialogues possesses two arguments. The first highlights the subject of ideologies linked to the functioning of police department which has been excellently depicted in a compact statement: "there is no democracy devoid of a democratic police department." The second one has not been defined in definite terms, thus it will be explicated in this particular study: what has been the police department's functioning in controlling the violence activities occurring in the urban vicinities of Brazil? The police department is deemed as a tactical performer in an urban practice. Only a few public agencies possess immeasurable involvement in the sundry practice of the cities, and recurrent dealings with the population belonging to varied societal layers.

The police departments of democratic societies must incorporate a sense of obligation, accountability, systematization, and being effectual in performing their tasks. In accordance to this notion, the text has laid great emphasis on developing such strategies for a democratic society that are characterized as proactive in controlling and preventing crime (Goldstein, 1990). It has been detected that accurate and precise deployment by means of information management eradicates a considerable amount of crime activities (Sherman, 1989 and 1995; Beato, 2004a).

Our intention would be to define the interlinking attribute out of the components linked to these three spectrums. Crime, the urban space, and the interlinking out of the police department personnel would be the vital focus of the dialogues of this particular study. The exploration for propositions explicating the manner, with which components are linked to one another, along with their communication, appears vital in the public policies' prevalent practices regarding protection in urban centers of Brazil.

The police Problem in Brazil

In the urban areas, police is considered as a universal personality. According to Muir (1977), police fit the description of the secret social service of the society due to their active performance and capillarity. Some public agencies are also in stipulation by the inhabitants of poor communities due to the unclear and vague valuation of police in such areas. According to Filho and colleagues (2005), observance of negligence and defenselessness has been experienced by the inhabitants of such communities only when conditions get worse due to the impact of violence and this gives birth to various other social and public services causing social inadequacy.

Some important questions which must be asked from the society include the following: How crime percentage is being impacted by the police? Could police perform their duties in an organizational way, permitting the population of city areas to liberate themselves according to their controlling ability? Can the public agencies overwhelm the situations of violence which has been conducted over the years on the basis of regional corruption? The examinations, which have been conducted for the appraisal of the performance of those techniques which are opted by Brazilian police organizations, were considered to be null and void with respect to the ratio of the number of police men and women per civilian, or, according to the budgeting of police done in this regard. According to Blumstein et al. (1978), perfect utilization of funds does not depend on the way the increments occur in the budget because the efficiency of police could not be measured in the department or on the streets because a lot of policemen and women do not exchange information regarding any social issue or their performance in response to the issue, however; this could be due to any apparent motive.

Throughout the 70s and 80s the major issue in the U.S. was the assessment of the particular police trends. According to Wilson (1968) and Wilson and Boland (1978), one of the most demanding hypothesis of that time was that police divisions that strictly followed law leaned towards developing a more aggressive form of patrolling so as to have more effect on the crime rates. As this would happen circuitously, an addition in the number of arrests due to blitzkrieg and explore-and-comprehend procedures was expected but the most significant effect was the message sent forth by the police of altering the perception of the likeliness of arrests. The chaos was reduced by communicating directly and also in expectation of future usage in the city of New York, the social control mechanisms had grown. Sampson and Cohen (1988) in their study added that the later assessments affirmed the active skillfulness of the police work.

Wilson and Kelling, 1982 said that it was evident from the U.S. how the police activity management can be an important element in governing social life as well as controlling crime. According to Goldstein, (1990) the important element of problem definition and solution was insulated due to which a new image of patrolling was originated. Beato (2001a) reported that, unlike U.S., in Brazil the most beneficial methods to manage have been lately included in the agenda of the intended police reforms.

Anyhow the boundaries of this affect are unknown. While some authors say that crime cannot be fully contained by the police because some basic deciding elements are not in the reach of their job, other authors like Bayley (1994) support the same notion by saying that police is a band aid and the crime is a cancer which means that it is out of their reach to control crime. Other agencies and different types of programs play a very significant role in barring crime. Kelling (1996) and Bratton (1998) opined that the image of the city of New York police, according to the life-quality crimes, demands more attention to develop police management strategies. According to Filho and colleagues (2005), if proper support is provided in the form of result based information and management forms there is ample room for the police to develop activities itself.

In spite of the huge magnitude of social issues, several authors have formulated a hypothesis in Latin America according to which police performs a very important role in creating active policies to limit the predaceous criminal activities that happen in the urban centers. Mechanisms which ameliorate the efficiency of the police must be dealt with in a public safety policy along with the strategies that focus on local social economic development. Filho and colleagues (2005) called these actions a community management of public safety issues for the purpose of developing social and police management.

Community management of public safety issues

In spite of the huge vociferation of controlling crime by police, the role of police is very unclear. Bratton (1998) pointed out the new growing emphasis on the ways which attempt to do institutional reengineering for establishing, with the police, a more consistent management structure by obtaining fruitful results. Of this viewpoint, information and its attainment adopt a very important role in the police activities which when combined with strategies of other agencies, community involvement and articulation form a strategy which is known as 'community management of public safety issue'. The strength and effectiveness of the activities that are developed in response to these strategies will depend on how well the information is produced, organized, made available and used by the police. Information is the core input and depending on how it is used for planning as well as formulating strategies, assessing and supervising results will be based on the advance systems of dealing with public safety.

According to Manning (1988), Manning (1992) and Skolnick (1966), interpreting and grasping the procedure of changing information that is maintained by the public as well as several state agencies into systematic data, which can then be used and turned into knowledge that can support decision making, is very difficult to understand but it must be known by everyone. A number of technological views are involved in order to coordinate several aspects of legal police activity as well as different concepts of storing and managing data. In the view of Filho and colleagues (2005), information technology is a broad range field for public safety interest. It is further filled by a number of investigation applications and assesses intelligence activities that take place with the help of scientific evidences.

Goldstein, 1990 says that the participation of community and stakeholders in the issues of public safety work with networks and in collaboration with different kind of agencies can be very useful. These types of collaborations want moderations to a certain extent in formulating and designing police activities in the times of authenticity crises and uncommon interaction with the public widely (Filho et al., 2005).

Conventional patrolling strategies

In the case of Brazil, this change in view includes two hurdles that should be dealt with successfully. The first hurdle that should be dealt with is the absence of culture in order to design and deal with the public safety issues. The challenges here are equally difficult to control as of the natural calamities challenges where little human involvement hardly makes any difference. Lack of strong planning culture is much related to this same belief and is supported rarely by any establishment in social projects in order to assure and prevent crime and ensure public safety policies. According to a stringent police viewpoint it is not impossible to manage material and human resources but the outcome of this process is difficult to manage. It is possible to internally manage police stations and military barracks by using old organizational ways and methods, however, results are never associated with crime (Filho et al., 2005).

The public safety issues were dominated by the police officers and legal experts for a number of years in Brazil. Even after subsequent governments of several ideological chromaticities, a team of police officers and lawyers is needed to determine what actions must be adopted wherever emergency actions are required. This team formulation creates violence in the country which is also evident from the indicators that clearly show the rising rate of criminality. Failure to solve cases has created incredulity among policy makers who study this area as well as other operators. According to Filho et al., 2005 the conventional types of actions produce a negligible result keeping in mind the complexity of the phenomenon of violence in the previous years.

If the rise in legitimate demand for increased safety in Brazil, which is exaggerated in the media, is included in the analysis, a state of confusion and disbelief would be witnessed among the operators. In Brazil the common practice is to shift the responsibility on someone else in the hierarchy which is why administration is blamed by the city government because improved results from the police cannot be obtained. Filto et al. (2005) say that state governments shift the responsibility to the federal government who then blame the macroeconomic policies which are apparently the determinant for the increase in crime.

Researchers declare this traditional approach of management by the police institutions as the outcome or influence of incidents. According to Professor Goldstein, 1990, this is the one of the main blockades to adoption of a wholly objective based approach in the police institutions' working mechanism. Every other incident is regarded as the sequel and not a single effort is made in analyzing the new dimensions of the same picture. The patrolling cars and other installations are unable to record the exact timings, space and other ingredients of the happenings because of poor information system. Due to this, there is gap between the accurate intelligence information and its correlation with some pattern. So finally, the system is unable to do proper analysis of the patterns and happenings and hence the system is unable to perform its tasks of public safety in a coherent manner.

The "event-oriented approach" is described as the formal procedure of the police operation, where the citizens, government installations and even service people themselves call the police from the toll-free number and record the complaint which is written in the form of a "series of events" and that bulletin is presented to central operational department. After doing all of this, the psychiatric guidance is required and then the personnel go after that.

The lethargy of the system is justified because it follows typical police patrolling approach instead of time and space dimensions of the crime occurred. This approach is reaction based and resource allocation is done in the same manner. However, the in-depth analysis of every individual incident shows that there are certain specific distinctions in every incident, as they do not occur randomly all over the city (Filho et al., 2005).

Resultantly, the police face isolation from the community and neighborhood as they do not cooperate appropriately when and where the crime takes place. The office cadre is chasing the crimes solely in the way they are directed by the operational heads and they have a little choice in terms of forces deployment. These types of police actions are looked upon suspiciously by the public due to their ambiguous nature. Basically this is the outcome of police's organizational goals and the work environment as well as the cultural background of the personnel (Filho et al., 2005).

Violence by Criminal Gangs

If we take Rio and Sao Paulo, patrolling there, is really difficult as the drug mafia has a very large influence in the area and neighborhood. In Sao Paulo, in spite of the decreasing number of killings in the last many years, the May 2006 report tells that still there are some security problems. More than 10,000 people were involved in deliberate homicide in Rio and Sao Paulo by the year 2008 (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Although both of the states are suffering from serious security problems, Rio leads in worsening law and order situations. By 2008 the homicide rate in Rio was (34.50 per 100,000 residents), which is much higher than Sao Paulo's (10.76 per 100,000 residents). On the other hand, the volume of robberies per 100,000 residents was 854 in Rio, while in Sao Paulo the rate was 530 (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Due to drug trafficking both of the states face intense violence, killing, torture and number of other criminal offenses. The case of Rio is sensitive where the police-allied mercenaries are also involved in violent crimes. On the other side, Sao Paulo faced peak criminal heat in May 2006 where the lead command of the capital (Primeiro Comando da Capital or PCC) were able to execute more than 100 attacks on the security agencies, public buildings and bus stations (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

The group also launched attacks on the police installations and killed more than 43 police in the prison riots. A severe layer of crime started in December 2006, when PCC launched successful criminal attacks against the police and at public buildings which left 19 people killed and around 22 injured. In Rio, seven people were burnt living in the bus on a main road; where one of the victims died later on (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

In recent times, the drug mafia shot down an armed forces helicopter in which three officers were killed and 4 other people injured. In July 2008, drug mafia organized a 'sitting' in Morro da Mangueira to hear the case of a 14-year-old girl who was accused of stealing a mobile phone from a cabman. As a "punishment" the girl was shot in her hands (Human Rights Watch, 2009). In another case, the drug traffickers arrested the journalist Tim Lopes in Vila Cruzeiro who was carrying out a research on the children's sexual abuse and some other criminal offenses. He was tortured severely and then beheaded by a sword (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

The case of Sao Paulo is not different where in the year 2005's prison riots the gangs in the jail 1 at Presidente Venceslau beheaded five individuals, who were accused of being against the gang (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Inadequate Pay and Police Corruption

The police and military are underpaid in Rio and Sao Paulo, which does not fulfill the needs of the soldiers and hence they engage in crimes and corruption themselves. According to a military officer in Rio, a regular beginner military officer earns much less than the low-profile young men in the gangs. He asserted that a cadet in drug smuggling is paid around R$1,300 monthly, {around U.S. $650}, while the military police personnel is paid R$1,090 {around U.S. $545} 15. The salaries of Rio military police were the lowest of the security officers' salaries in the country for many years (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

A UN reporter on extrajudicial murders, Philip Alston, stressed upon the low police pays in 2008 as the prominent factor behind engagement of security personnel in gangs' militias. The Police faced more off the duty murders as compared to the on the duty injury or killings in the Rio and Sao Paulo (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Reform Initiatives

As far as the role of the government is concerned; it has taken some sensible steps in order to increase the professional competencies of the police and curb the menace of corruption and power abuse. A good example of that is: in the year 1995 Sao Paulo formalized a law which established a separate Police Ombudsman's Office for hearing the public complaints against the police. Rio also practiced the same structure in the year 1999 (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

In the recent times, the federal government has introduced a new national security program with the name of National Program for Public Security with Citizenship (PRONASCI), which will invest in police training and internal affair management. While in Sao Paulo, the Public Security Secretariat, which governs the police system has introduced a new training module on the "Giraldi Mechanism." This technique is aimed at reducing the lethargic attitude of police in the case of facing the enemy (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

While in Rio, a pilot "accession" program has been implemented where the small neighborhoods, like Dona Marta, are being used for the sake of monitoring the drug trafficking and have helped reduce the cowardice attitude of police. In this program, a large police battalion is deployed in a low profile area permanently (Human Rights Watch, 2009). Rio Security Secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame has recently claimed that they had managed to capture four crime-based territories in separate neighborhoods. His claim was visible on the official website of the program. Officials are of the view that some of the pilot programs have been immensely successful. However, Human Rights Watch has not conducted any independent analysis of them (Human Rights Watch, 2009). Although some of the steps were in direct guidelines, however they were unable to replace the need for a separate outside monitoring mechanism for police or the valuable investigation of the crimes facilitated or committed by the security agencies (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Criminal Justice in Brazil

The government structure in Brazil is of federal systems. The federal government is responsible for criminal legislation and procedures are designed by it as well. However, the implementation of the laws is the responsibility of the states. Every state has its own level courts, jails and police force for that matter (Human Rights Watch, 2009). 28 In Brazil, instead of controlling at the federal levels, states control and manage the police with the help of security secretariats. The security forces are divided into two autonomous bodies, civil police and military police. The governor of the state heads both of the forces; however the military police works as the reserve hand for the military as well (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

The tasks military, civil and state police are separated from each other on the basis of functions. The duty of military police is to guard the avenues, sustaining the law among people, reacting to ongoing misdemeanors, and taking in custody the people, who are arrested while doing some crime (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Offenses taking place within the army, explained by Military Penal Code, are also the responsibility of military police. Officers of Military police are usually put on trial and sentenced in the military courts; but the most worth mentioning exemption to this authoritative law is the deliberate killing of some civilians and, for matters like these, officers of military are prosecuted in civilian courts (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Criminal inquiry by civil police is carried out in a justice arrangement which is civilian, together with the inquiries of intentional killings of civilians done by police. Every civil police district is managed by the zone in charge called Delegado (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Ministerio Publico; the office of Prosecutor, a judge, sufferer or affronted party, or the third party on paper instructions of relative police in charge can start a criminal investigation (inquerito policial) which is handled by police. When the police come to know of some disobedience of penal code, multiple actions should be taken by them, which could include visiting the scene of that crime and making sure that no changes whatsoever take place before forensic specialists have analyzed the scene (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

The investigators employed from the police departments should gather as many details and information as they can to make clear the offense and the state of affairs around it, by taking the testimonies of anyone who saw the crime and gathering trace evidence (Human Rights Watch, 2009). 36 A judge shall receive the conclusive results of an investigation of a related case within 30 days by the inquirers of the police. If the prosecutor demands for more time, the judge can increase the cut-off time limit for the results of inquiry, again and again. As soon as the police has devised some conclusion of their inquiries, they need to submit an extensive statement in written to an experienced judge (Human Rights Watch, 2009). This written statement is then presented to a capable indictor to decide if the charges are required (denuncias) for some defendant. Advanced and additional analysis to the situation may be ordered by either the judge or the accuser (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

The scrutiny of police can only be stopped for an imprecise period by the instructions of judge or sometimes unusually by the demand of accuser. When some case gets shelved, it means that it is shut down. And then it can only be reopened if some new proof or facts are discovered. The overseas cases of intentional killings which are under the authority of courts of jury trial, if the judge thinks that the evidence of, if the crime (materialidade) ever took place or of the personal accountability (autoria) or contribution (participacao) is not enough, he should decline the accusations of the indicter. But if the judge thinks that there are enough grounds, he or she should give a denunciation (pronuncia) (as cited in Human Rights Watch, 2009).

Police Oversight Problems

The modern state of Brazil, in its constitution of 1988, has given exceptional official assurances for the emancipation of civil people and has participated in all the large international conferences and meetings of human rights (Piovesan 1996; Pinheiro 2000). But all these measures have not been able to finish the violence and ill-treatment of the police, rather these have markedly increased since the civil government and democratic system has come back in 1985. The police of Brazil have continuously been condemned by native and international associations for the relentless primary human rights defiance and for relishing high degree of liberty.

However, torture, considered to be forbidden, was also included as a part of Constitution of 1988 as well as in 1997 alteration of the penal code. The end result of a document published by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture was accepted by the Government of Brazil in 2001 which stated that torture is both organized and well-known practice of police (United Nation 2001). Only few police officers had been taken to court regardless of hundreds of registered cases in 1997. It is also seen that there is no change in the use of torture as a tool by the police in spite of all the reforms that were made. In the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro alone shooting of civilians by the police add up to ten percent of the total homicides (Cano, 1997; OPESP 2000; U.S. Department of State 2002).

Failing in regulating conduct of police has an extensive amount of opportunity cost. Freedom given to police may differ in different parts of the world but this freedom mostly results in testing of the limits of the liberal rights. Whenever the police are given freedom they mostly deviate from the guideline provided to them by the policy and law making authorities. Due to the fear of the law makers, the general public of Brazil has taken law into their own hands to find the solution to their problem or alternative to reduce the lawlessness and criminal activities in their society - they may eventually prove to be expensive actions (Caldeira 2000). There has been an increase of police involvement in different white collar crimes and extortion in the past years (Mingardi 1992). The energy and force of police is more consumed toward pathological criminal group which should be consumed in other important activities like in the prevention and solving of crimes. It appears that, on the whole, Brazilian police has lost its effectiveness, become dishonest, offensive, and hardly controllable despite the military rule that was during 1964-1984. It is apparent that there is no accountability.

There has been an increasing interest to reduce the gap between solving problem through a legal way or an illegal way. This is not only in Brazil but in different Latin American countries as well. Institutional tools to stop "pays legal and pays reel" has received widespread attention. The scope of this paper is to analyze formation and operations of multiple oversight mechanisms introduced by a democratic Brazilian state in 1985 for the management of the complaints that are filed against the police misconduct. This research paper examines the collapse of the system in place and suggests different and improved mechanisms that could make the system better.

Dimensions of Accountability

There are two different ways available concerning different issues related to police misconduct. The first literature believes more towards the accountability (both vertical and horizontal) of Latin American politician as well as administrative institution within the framework of state reforms of the regions (O'Donnell 1999). This discipline of examination is concerned more towards the belief of relationship of state and people, republicanism, constitutionalism, and making possible practice of rights (Bresser Pereira 1997). The second one is more of a professional literature on misconduct of police, which has been emerging in different developed countries like Australia, USA and Western Europe. This view analyses different models in context to police oversight, which have been formed and implemented so far. The main focus of this paper would be on the second literature but keeping in view the different beliefs toward accountability in context of Brazil.

The word "Accountably" could not be translated into Spanish as well as in Portuguese, hence, adding to the weakness of this concept in different Latin American states. In Brazil, this word is explained with the help of three different terms. The definition of these terms in context to the paper are (1) transparencia, which mean existence of certain rules and operating criteria, (2) fiscalizacao, which means external as well as internal checking techniques to verify performance which is against rules and (3) responsabilidade, which means commitment of institutions and individual which includes, in context to the paper, the police officers to own their actions which could be both blame as well as praise and should have capacity of taking the appropriate actions. As we could observe, all the three terms are related and dependent on each other hence creating an intricate dimension of accountability existing in Brazil.

Police and democracy

A state is anticipated, in this modern democratic world, to have a monopoly of force which is to be exercised within the legal limitations, and with an intention of establishing and endorsing of law. The only mean is accountability, through which the citizens enforce the state to have a social arrangement and to retain its power within an acceptable limit. These limitations are being set and observed not only within the state i.e. domestically, but are also formed through international laws and with the help of public viewpoints. Even though, in well established democratic countries, the problem related to police control is new (Goldsmith 1991; Stenning 1995; Goldsmith and Lewis 2000). A growing opinion regarding the problem of misconduct of police control is that there should be comprehensive mechanism that must involve both oversight (which includes the way complaints are handled) and reviews. Furthermore, more proactive strategies should be introduced not only to identify different patterns and method of abuse and misconduct but also for their preventions (Lewis 1999:82; Goldsmith 1991). The main focus here is toward the first element.

In Latin America, the agenda of democratization policy has just added the matter of police lapse (Mendes 1999). Since, in Haiti and Central America, the protracted communal disputes have been sorted out, the reformation of police forces has been done on the basis of origin and subdivisions incited by significant bi- and polygonal technical assistance. The motive behind these disputes is to slice those systems which were performing the acts of dictatorial and earlier tyrannical establishments (Neild, 1999). Commission of human rights, ombudspersons, police civilian review boards, inspectorates and judicial councils with numerous lapses and assessment system were adopted from the outside by the countries of Latin America (Neild 1998; 2000). Although in comparison of the recent past of Latin America, more of the problems were conducted by the 'quis custodiet ipsos custodes' which means (who protects the protector) which is a classical system of criminal justice. The amnesty laws which were defined by the establishment of dictators protected the state agents who enjoyed the impunity after obligating the violations of human rights. Numerous persons who remain engaged in violating, were allowed to continue their jobs in armed forces, police and other offices including local and public, an issue which is so crucial in Brazil - a place which has undergone acts like assassination, torments and desertion of the people who were opposing the establishment; and nobody thought about the process of rehabilitation and reformation in that phase of transformation (Amnesty International 2002).

According to the Law of Amnesty of Brazil passed in 1979, the resistance caused by the political sources against the military administration resulted in the exclusion of the police and other armed forces from the tribunal and inquiry task and nobody came forward to challenge its authenticity. Due to this an ingrained institutional tradition was developed in Brazil police.

The knowledge regarding the past record and formation of the Brazilian police service can be very handy to evaluate the challenges faced by police. The administrative criminal system of judiciary and a federal system which is working under the supervision of government are present in Brazil. Federal stage has got Penal law which has been imposed all over the country though federal district and 2 states have got the criminal system of judiciary institutions working under it.

The courts of each state have been managed and provided financial help by its own state, whereas the federal constitution is responsible to formulate strategies regarding the police and jail organism. The police have been further divided among groups as military police who got uniform and their task is 'to protect the communal order', i.e. The police accountable for enquiring crimes are 'civil police' and also works as judicial police. Municipal guards have been kept by numerous big cities and federal police force also exists which is smaller in size. Though, civil police and state military is our prime concern over here.

State secretary for public security headed the civil police, whereas each governor of state headed the military police. In 1969, armed forces were working as the central command of both the civil and military police, which was due to the dictatorship over political repression (1964-1985). Two of these police forces again came under the charge of state secretary for the security of public at the time of the evolution to the democratic system in 1980s; though, along with the courts of military, the military police still continued to stay functional with formation of the national military. Both of these forces of police observes many different aspects in their past record and dissimilar abates that reveals many delinquency of police and many of the factors which have never been taken into consideration.

Oversight mechanisms

According to Lewis in his study conducted in 1999, various precepts of police surveillance have been undertaken with its entire merits and demerits that rely on the cultural and structural variables that may influence the behavior and organization of police in each background. I have analyzed those particular difficulties in the later section that are confronted by everyone involved in the present police accountability's mechanisms in Brazil, either the performance and design being neutral, or being in relation.

The four authentic police oversight mechanisms have been launched by Brazil, existing in three distinct classification of government: the judiciary (air force court), the executive (centralized proceeding administration and the adjudicator's place linked to the police administration), and the Ministerio Publico (attorney assistance) an exclusive Brazilian dogma that is mainly distinguished from both executive and judiciary, practically frequently known as "fourth power." So, Brazil adjoined the aggregate mechanisms, which is in congruence with Goldsmith's range of police oversight mechanisms assorting from exclusive police authority to exclusive civilian control.

If we take into account the schema of Goldsmith, the police internal affairs department (corregedoria) of military and civil police, and military courts, has to be in accordance with the "benchmark model." This is a paramilitary and traditional bureaucratic approach that does not include any civilian input and complaints are investigated by the police while military courts or in-house locations are used for making sanctions and discipline. In trial of military police it is significantly emphasized, and is categorized under the military court's exclusive remit. In some states, the corregedoria work is being investigated by ouvidoria (police ombudsperson office) that is in accordance with the Goldsmith's 'civilian external supervisory' classification, under which non-military people are given the right to carry out the monitoring of complaint process. These charges can't be deposited by the ouvidorias, and sanctions and inquiry are carried out by police. Ministerio Publico is an institution that is not categorized as a civilian "external review body," which wields the true external oversight, and is best described as a hybrid judicial institution, hence, enjoys institutional powers and independence. The three essential factors of liability: transparencia, fiscalizacao and responsabilidade are being currently examined with respect to each mechanism in numerous studies.

The socio-cultural context

Police oversight mechanism cannot be apprehended currently, apart from communal, educational and ancient framework of the lawfulness system that is implanted in an important two-fold pair of worth in which police ethics and people temperament towards police malfeasance are followed. The authentic post by Getulio Vargas asserts that the law is for his enemies and anything works for his friends. This highlights the possible features of law in Brazil. In many cases the police's restraining role persist to have advantageous choices for the poor. The atrocity conflict is antagonistic with law administration in Brazil. Different researchers like Muniz (1999), Mingardi (1992) and Kant de Lima (1995), describe in their respective studies the ethnological and anthropological studies of police that reflects the different universal values of day-to-day activity guidance, a world of social bureaucracy of inhabitant, non-inhabitant, criminal and non-criminals, approves and recompense and personal idealism, conferences and provisional reconciliation. The main obstacle is the preservation of autocratic values in police.

We can take the example of the laws which were implemented to discourage the torture; however, those laws had no effect on the conduct of police. Still the department of police is being seen as the holy cow in front of the legal cases as the senior officials are always ready with lame explanations and justifications. The first and the most common excuse, is to totally deny the information of any criminal activities of the subordinates (Huggins 2000a). Furthermore, the common phrase also used is that they were not on the night duty so, can't be responsible for something that happened at night. This not only shows the deliberate hidings of the police crimes but also the flaws in the command and control system of police and departmental structure. In addition to this, sometimes it is said that the prisoners beat themselves to get the public attention and ultimately immediate release from prison.

However, the majority of the establishment takes violence as a means to reduce the insurgency and is in favor of using it as a counter mechanism for tackling the drug and violence intensive areas' problems (Morgan 2000). This famous objective based approach is not answerable to any laws and regulations and the politicians are unable to oppose this despite the fact that it has proven to be more dangerous and a catalyst for spreading violence instead of countering it (Huggins 2000a; Huggins 2000b; Soares 2000). So, simply the violent and corrupt police behavior has been taken as the generally acceptable practice and even as a preferred traditional tool to tackle crime from one generation of police officers to later.

No attention has been given to manage and solve this traditional police's relaxed attitude. Instead of following the standard operating procedure laid down in the implemented laws ('sair do papel'), the police officers tend to remain lethargic and they have the tendency to devise their own operational policies and meanings of punishment and offense. Until and unless the existing police procedures are not molded towards much more clear and subjective modes of performance management, the police system will be unable to operate in the letter and spirit of laws and will remain characterless.

Lastly, the subsequent central government's policies regarding police and security system have been nothing but a symbol of failure. In the dictatorship, the police system was centralized, which resulted in exceptional practices and favors. While in the democratic set ups, the whole security system was handed over to the local governments; where the police always served the political interests of political and business elites. You can judge the central government's poor performance and ignorance of the matter from the simple fact that there is no proper record and authentic database of violence and social killings, plus you will not find the relevant rates of homicide, torture, clear up and prison registration etc. The government policies are just general and broad based and there is just a list of good sounding ideas with no proper criteria for judgment and implementation.

Conclusion

Finally the procedure to handle and listen to complaints is nothing but the set of complicated practices, which is mixture of legal, administrative, policy level and institutional rituals but still there is a big loop hole in the feedback system, so there is no surety that the feedback will discourage or enforce this sort of practices.

The army courts and corregedorias both have always been leaning towards legitimization of enduring authoritarianism as they have been unable to perform their duties as per required ethics and even refused to proceed against human rights violations. The structure and internal system of courts is so vulnerable to the dominant negative values and compromising before the political pressure. This overall image and practices of the courts undermines the courage of some of those corregedorias which tried to implement the democratic civil rights principles in their judgments. The army courts protect the institutional authoritarianism and exceptional inklings as they have endorsed immunity to around 3 quarters of police force in Brazil.

The outer control mechanism, generally known as Ministerio Publico, has shrugged off its professional responsibilities to the unskilled, un-resourceful units who are unable to operate in the institutional sprits by and large. Among all of the mechanisms implemented only ouvidorias was focused on the real implementation of civil rights, accountability and transparent system implementation. However, the efficiency of the system largely depends upon the political will which ensures the resource mobility and institutional independence. For perfect understanding of the failure of the existing police system in ensuring accountability we will have to understand that despite some individual successes, the system had some inter-departmental conflicts and coordination problems. The existing system gives biased judgment in favor of police before they are sent to any independent platform.

The internal process analysis has been done from various dimensions but none of them has been able to break this Pandora box. The fundamental outside control element is not independent as the Ministerio Publico's office has not been able to prosecute it which has led the institutions to fall in the eyes of public. On the other hand ouvidoria has autonomy but it is toothless in the terms of implementation. It can review the process but due to almost non-existent government supervision of the process cannot implement; however, in some of the states like Sao Paulo, the police review councils (Conselhos de Seguranca Publica - CONSEGs) have been established for that matter.

Answerability is desired to be envisaged of in wider conditions as well. The two of the methodologies investigated consist of a fundamentally hasty, post action, event perceived function (armed forces judicature and corregedorias). The grievances from affiliates of the community is, as well, a reliance of the ouvidorias, however they have started to take on a further practical reassessment figure, utilizing their collective knowledge to build offers for organizational modifications in the law enforcing mechanism. The uppermost rank of self-government is enjoyed by the Ministerio Publico, resource allocation along with lawful authorities in connection with the law enforcement. On the other hand, it cannot be capable of utilizing those authorities entirely for the reason of law enforcement omission as well as reassessment till the time when reorganization of the law enforcement is done to remove fundamental formational difficulties, for example, organizational manic-independence, biases in inquiry procedure, and the present deficiency of practicable processing rules and measures.

Proposals for Specific Actions:

A particular plan must look for decrease in murders in areas having an alarming figure of over 40 for every 100,000 inhabitants. Law enforcement heads must keep this plan their highest priority, allocating straight and precise objectives following cautious identification of dangerous neighborhoods, looking for society assistance, engaging combined operation by the Public and Armed forces along with well trained professionals and scientific specialists (Filho, 2004).

Guns are quite common for committing violent crimes in Brazil. The civilians possess approximately 397 million small firearms around the globe. According to the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, a detailed report highlighted global annual weapons trade of worth U.S.$4billion. Countries like Brazil are greatly affected by machine guns, rifles, and pistols since more people are getting them and creating dangers for the others. The estimated 397 million small firearms mean that every 20 people dwelling on earth have a gun. If we exclude the population of old people, children, women, and resident of those regions where there is a strict ban on firearms, then the estimate comes around 5 or 6 able-bodied men possessing a firearm in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Central Africa, West Africa, Middle East, and Central American Republics. Hence, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are those big cities of Brazil that not safe from guns (Filho, 2004).

Talking about the gun homicides, Brazil ranks at the top, having constituting to almost 88% of all murders committed, or 40,000 annually. Sao Paulo State, in which the stolen guns are estimated as 11,000 yearly (1/3 of total arms sales in Brazil), is the location for 12,000 killings. It is thus the responsibility of the police to work in collaboration with National Public Security Fund to eradicate illegal guns from the society. Improved gun registration procedures should be introduced. Illegal weapons, along with their sources should be traced. Those carrying the weapons, on which the serial numbers have been erased or changed, must be fined heavily. It must be understood by the police that weapons are not dangerous as much as the individual carrying them. The background of the weapons seized and their carriers should be properly recorded by the data banks. A special intelligence unit needs to be established by the Federal Police so that the illegal weapons' flow can be traced with the help of other authorities too. The possession and sales of guns needs to be governed by more strict laws and regulations (Filho, 2004).

Programs should also be initiated that would help in promoting police integrity and lessen the exposure towards corruption. The new police recruits must be investigated through stricter standard procedures. Moreover, systems should be developed to control and monitor the deviant behavior of police personnel, the watchdog units must be realigned in terms of procedures and structures, inclusion of courses in academics of police on enforcement and standards of professional ethics, and devising new legislation and procedures so that trials for police corruption can be investigated and administered. For instance, a procedure has now been implemented by the law on other state of employees apart from the police forces of Sao Paulo. This is known as rapida, which is aimed at eliminating deviant behavior and corruption (Filho, 2004).