Police violence as the greatest threat to public security: Gendarmerie in Brazil and Mexico

Abstract

Crime and violence threatens the lives of millions of citizens living in Latin America, a region that hosts the infamously high crime capitals of the world. A fundamental feature of this dire condition is institutional corruption and violence. This brief assesses the effectiveness of a gendarmerie policy in Latin America, with perspectives from the military police of Brazil and the recently instated 'National Gendarmerie' in Mexico. These perspectives indicate that although military policing is sufficient to combat large-scale crimes such as drug trafficking, the empirical evidence of continued organised crime and the predisposition to violence has created a backlash threat to civilian security. This policy brief identifies the institutional challenges that prevent a gendarmerie from functioning compatibly within existing fragile democracies of Latin America. In the way it is systematically embedded within government and extrajudicial institutions, organised crime is easily concealable in Latin America, and greatly challenging to scrutinise. This policy brief recommends the professionalisation of the police force, institutional reform to improve accountability of the state, and the reduction of social inequalities as paramount to improving public security. In essence, the dynamic of a monolithic military elite must be destabilised to alleviate social inequalities that trap a particular group of society in an endless cycle of crime and violence.