Rio de Janeiro

2018 is not over yet, and the state of Rio de Janeiro state has recorded the highest number of police killings deaths by police in 16 years, and since such data started to be collected. There were 1,444 victims from January through November, the equivalent of one death every 5 and a half hours.

So far, the highest amount of police lethality happened in 2007, with 1,330 deaths, one year before the start of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs), implemented by the then governor Sérgio Cabral (MDB).

Researchers collect accounts of police brutality at Mangueirinha, in Duque de Caxias, Greater Rio - Jaqueline Banai - 25.jun.2018/Courtesy/Defensoria Pública do RJ

The record was broken before the December data had been collected, which will place the final death toll over 1,500 deaths, according to data released on Tuesday (18th) by the Institute of Public Security (ISP), an autonomous agency associated with Rio de Janeiro's state government.

Rio de Janeiro's public security is under federal intervention since February, when the police corps, firefighters and the prison system were put under the command of General Walter Souza Braga Netto. The measure was decreed by President Michel Temer and will expire on December 31st.

Police killings have been for the last five years in an upward trend, that didn't relent after the federal intervention. From March to November, a period of nine full months under intervention, deaths increased 38% over the same period last year.

Translated by NATASHA MADOV

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