Brazilian Police Officers Killed in the Line of Duty: Daily Life of a Violent Reality

Abstract

This paper presents data on the causes and circumstances of on-duty police deaths in Pará state, Brazil. We specifically analyzed deaths occurring from January 2010 to December 2017. Fifty-two deaths were examined using the database of the Secretary of Intelligence and Criminal Investigations (Siac) of Pará State Secretary for Public Security (Segup) and the investigative procedures undertaken by the internal inspector of the Pará Military Police and by the Homicide Division of Pará Civil Police. Results show that in a little less than fifty percent of all cases, on-duty police deaths are not directly related to direct confrontations with criminals even when they occur during work shifts. Despite the common discourse that police are killed by criminals seeking revenge, or because their equipment, especially guns are robbed, the number and nature of police deaths during the period of investigation does not corroborate these speculations.