| Agencyname: | Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State |
| Nativename: | Polícia Militar do Estado do Rio de Janeiro |
| Abbreviation: | PMERJ |
| Patch: | Brasão PMRJ.PNG |
| Patchcaption: | Blazon of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State |
| Logocaption: | Flag of Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State |
| Badge: | Distintivo PMERJ.jpg |
| Badgecaption: | Badge of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State |
| Motto: | To serve and protect Servir e proteger |
| Formedyear: | 1809 |
| Formedmonthday: | May 13 |
| Map: | Brazil State RiodeJaneiro.svg |
| Sizepopulation: | 16,010,429 (2009) |
| Employees: | 45,000 (2018) |
| Constitution1: | Article 42 of Constitution of Brazil[1] |
| Gendarmerie: | Yes |
| Federal: | No |
| Country: | Brazil |
| Divtype: | State |
| Divname: | Rio de Janeiro |
| Headquarters: | City of Rio de Janeiro |
| Website: | portuguese |
The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State (Portuguese: Polícia Militar do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) (PMERJ) like other military polices in Brazil is a reserve and ancillary force of the Brazilian Army, and part of the System of Public Security and Brazilian Social Protection.[2] Its members are called "state military" personnel.[3]
The primary mission of PMERJ is ostensively preventive policing for the maintenance of public order in the State of Rio de Janeiro.
Under the United Nations, in cooperation with the Brazilian Army, the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State has served in Angola, Mozambique, East-Timor, Sudan, and Haiti.
The first militarized police in Portugal (when Brazil was still a colony) was the Royal Police Guard of Lisbon (Portuguese: Guarda Real de Polícia de Lisboa), established in 1801,[4] which followed the model of the National Gendarmerie (French: Gendarmerie Nationale) of France, created in 1791.
When the Portuguese Royal Family was transferred to Brazil, the Royal Police Guard of Lisbon remained in Portugal, and another equivalent guard was created in Rio de Janeiro under the name of Military Division of the Royal Police Guard of Rio de Janeiro, in 1809.[5]
With the abdication of Emperor Pedro I in 1831, the Regency restructured the Brazilian Armed Forces. After its soldiers rioted, the Royal Police Guard of Rio de Janeiro was dissolved,[6] and was replaced by the Permanent Municipal Guard Corps,[7] a branch of the Army. Another security force similar to the French National Guard was also created. The same law allowed each Province to establish its own Guard of Volunteers.
In 1834, Pedro I died in Portugal and this reduced the fear in Brazil of a reunification of the kingdoms. In the province of Rio de Janeiro (surrounding the royal court in Rio de Janeiro city) the Provincial Police Corps was established, with professional troops.[8] The Police Corps were created with the same structure as Brazilian Army, and to serve as reserve troops when necessary, under the provincial presidents' control. In 1835, the president of Rio de Janeiro province created the "Rio de Janeiro Province Police Guard" (Guarda Policial da Província do Rio de Janeiro).
With the proclamation of the Republic, Brazil adopted a constitution based on the United States, where the states have a large autonomy. The Corps of Police were renamed Public Forces (Força Pública) and began to be administered by the states governors and became smaller regional armies, with infantry, cavalry, artillery, and later, even air forces. This became a threat to the national army and remained until the rise of Getúlio Vargas's dictatorial government in the 1930s, when he abolished states autonomy, after Constitutionalist Revolution and Estado Novo coup, with the Brazilian army beginning its control over states military polices and military firefighters corps - including the then Federal District Military Police, which served the city of Rio de Janeiro during its days as the national capital - until 1960 -, alongside the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State, which was separated from the city, until both organizations were merged, in 1975.
The constitutional attributions of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State (PMERJ) are provided for in § 5 of Article 144 of the Constitution, "the military police responsible for the ostensive policing and the maintenance of public order".
In addition:
The PMERJ is operationally organized into Intermediary Commands or Policing Area Command (Portuguese: Comandos Intermediários/Comandos de Policiamento de Área), battalions, companies, platoons and detachments; administratively, in untersecretariats, . Independent companies police sizable towns.The battalions are based in major urban centers, and their companies and platoons are distributed according to population density in cities.
The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro is present in all cities of the State.
See main article: Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais. The idea of a group of police officers who were specifically trained to work in extreme risk situations arose after the tragic outcome of the hostage incident in the Criminal Evaristo de Moraes Institute in 1974. At the time the director of the prison, the police Major Darcy Bittencourt, who was held hostage by criminals who tried to escape, he was killed along with some arrested after the intervention of the police force. It was established on January 19, 1978, the Bulletin of the Military Police No. 014 on the same date as Center of Special Operations Company, through an elaborate project and presented by Captain PM Paulo César de Amendola de Souza, who witnessed the crisis, then the general commander of PMERJ, Col. Mário José Sotero de Menezes. Running in CFAP facilities of volunteers and operationally subordinate to the Chief of Staff of PMERJ. The NuCOE worked at a camp on the premises of Squares Training Centre (GFC) in Sulacap in northern Rio. There were 12 tents for about 30 policemen. On March 1, 1991, there was the creation of the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE).[9]
In 2001, the BOPE adopted armored vehicles baptized as "caveirões" to protect PMs in raids in slums. Thus, the battalion was heavily criticized by human rights groups for having printed the insignia of skull pierced by a dagger.
The BOPE is considered today one of the leading police forces to combat urban guerrilla in the world, that due to its wide experience gained in over 30 years of repression of drug traffickers and armed gangs in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.[10]
Pacifying Police Unit is a State Department project in Rio de Janeiro Security that seeks to establish community police in slums, mostly in the state capital, in order to dismantle gangs that previously controlled these territories as true parallel states. Before the project, opened in 2008, only the Tavares Bastos favela, among the more than 500 existing in the city, had no organized crime and drug trafficking.
Because the favelas with Pacifying Police Units had formerly been controlled by armed drug traffickers for more than twenty-five years, the fear of retribution, which was a mainstay of the "law of the traffickers" is slow to die. For instance, in April 2012 when a drug trafficker who had formerly controlled the favela of Mangueira was shot and killed during a police operation in Jacarezinho (before the area had received its own Pacifying Police Unit), others from the same criminal faction ordered businesses to close their doors early in Mangueira — which they did. This despite the fact that Mangueira has a permanent pacification police force as part of its own Pacifying Police Unit. A similar occurrence of businesses closing their doors early in Mangueira because the traffickers ordered it occurred in February 2013.In May 2012, Beltrame acknowledged that armed criminals had migrated from parts of Rio that have a large police presence due to pacification, to areas with less police and no Pacifying Police Units, such as Niterói, which is nearby, across the bay. Beltrame has stated however that he believes based on analysis of crime data that only gang leaders higher in the hierarchy could reestablish in other favela communities (without Pacifying Police Units); and that lower level traffickers have a much harder time integrating into other geographic areas.
While the favela areas under pacification have seen improvements, there has been an increase in the concentration of criminals in other parts of Rio de Janeiro that don't have the direct benefits of permanent pacification police forces actively patrolling these neighborhoods. Among these areas are those of the Baixada Fluminense, Niterói, and certain neighborhoods in the North Zone.
It was obvious early on that criminals were fleeing particular favelas before BOPE entered to establish a groundwork for a permanent police presence. Previously, when police had attempted to encircle a favela by surprise in order to arrest and kill traffickers, large-scale shootouts would ensue, and innocent favela residents were caught in the crossfire.
While more high-profile gang leaders (also referred to in Rio's media as "traffickers") have been forced to leave favelas now administered by UPP police forces, their familial connections remain. Also, gang members from other favelas who are of the same faction as residents under Pacifying Police Units, still coordinate and visit each other. Exemplifying this point, one of Rio's newspapers reported on July 9, 2012 that groups of criminals fired upon police in different locations within the Complexo do Alemão on the same day that military forces completed their final withdrawal from the area.
There is a well known history of police abuse and corruption in Rio de Janeiro, and for years this only added fuel to the war between drug traffickers controlling Rio's favelas and the police.
In recent years there have been concerted efforts under Secretary Beltrame to root out corrupt police; and this is the very reason that the community policing of the favelas under the Pacifying Police Unit program are staffed by new recruits coming straight from the Pacifying Police Unit police academy — such as the 750 officers who will be policing the large Rocinha favela beginning in August 2012.
Beltrame has stated that the main purpose of the Pacifying Police Units is more toward stopping armed men from ruling the streets than to put an end to drug trafficking. A 2010 report by the World Organization Against Torture did note the drop in the homicide rate within Rio de Janeiro's favelas.[11]
Rio de Janeiro is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a police officer.
According to a study of the analysis of victimization of military police by the State of Rio de Janeiro Military Police (PMERJ), presented by Colonel PM Fábio Cajueiro, Chief of Staff of the Police Command Specialized in the Forum of Police Officers Dead and Wounded, in Sulacap, in 23 years, from 1994 to 2016, the PMERJ had 17,686 casualties, of which 14,452 were injured and 3,234 were dead from unnatural causes.
These figures represent 19.65% of casualties (16.06% of wounded and 3.59% of deaths) of the available personnel in the period, of 90 thousand and five military police.
By way of comparison, to get a sense of how high this victimization rate is, during US participation in World War II, the American casualties rate was 6.69%. Also for comparison, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) casualty index, in the aforementioned war, was 9.99%. Colonel PM Cajueiro pointed out that the probability of being injured as a military police officer in the State of Rio de Janeiro is 765 times greater than in wars.
Military police victimization in 2016 registered 363 PM injured by firearms, with 104 of these police officers killed. These numbers represent a break with the trend in the number of deaths of military police officers, which according to the Public Security Institute (ISP) Police Victimization Report (1998 to November 2015) had been declining since 2007, of the PMERJ.
According to the ISP report, the chance of a casualty officer being killed by assailants (robbery crime) is 5877% higher than a person from another profession.[12]
These are the Policing Area Commands and their respective battalions, that works under the Untersecretary of Operation Management. Cities and neighborhoods indicate the location of their headquarters.
| Equipment | Type | Origin | Notes | Photo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IMBEL IA2 | Assault rifle |  Brazil | Standard | ||
| FN FAL | Rifle |  Belgium | Standard | ||
| ParaFAL | Rifle | Belgium/ Brazil | Standard | ||
| Heckler & Koch PSG1 | Sniper Rifle |  Germany | special operations | ||
| M16A2 | Rifle |  United States | special operations | ||
| IMBEL MD2 | Rifle | Brazil | special operations | ||
| M4 | Carbine | United States | Standard | ||
| AR-15 | Carbine | United States | Standard | ||
| Taurus CT-30 | Carbine | Brazil | Standard | ||
| Remington Model 1100 | Shotgun | United States | riot control | ||
| Mossberg 500 | shotgun | United States | riot control | ||
| MP5 | submachine | Germany | special operations | ||
| Imbel MT-12 | submachine | Brazil | Standard | ||
| TAURUS FAMAE in .40 | submachine |  Chile/ Brazil | Standard | ||
| Taurus PT-100 | Pistol | Brazil | Standard | ||
| Taurus PT 24/7 | Pistol | Brazil | Standard | ||
| Taurus Model 605 | Revolver | Brazil | Standard | ||
| Taser Pistol | Non-lethal weapon | Brazil | Standard | ||
| Smoke grenade | Non-lethal weapon | Brazil | riot control and special operations | ||
| Riot gun | Non-lethal weapon | Brazil | riot control and special operations |
| Model | Manufacturer | Type | Notes | Photo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrol car | Standard vehicle | ||||
| Multi-purpose car | Special police/ Highway patrol | ||||
| Response car | Standard vehicle | ||||
| Multi-purpose car | Riot police car | ||||
| Riot police car | |||||
| Special police | |||||
| Standard vehicle | |||||
| Police motorcycle | Standard vehicle | ||||
| Police motorcycle | Riot police | ||||
| Armoured personnel carrier | Vehicle war on drugs | ||||
| Armoured personnel carrier | Vehicle war on drugs | ||||
| Infantry mobility vehicle | Special operations | ||||
| Police truck | |||||
| Police truck | Special operations/High Observation Platform | ||||
| Beit Alfa Model MAN RCU 6000 II | Beit Alfa technologies | Armoured Heavy equipment/Police truck | |||
| Armoured Heavy equipment | Vehicle auxiliary |
| Aircraft | Type | Versions | In service | Photo | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schweizer 300 | Training | Schweizer 300 CBi | 01 | Designated phoenix 6. | ||
| Eurocopter AS350 | Patrol helicopter | AS-350B3 | 06 | Designated phoenix 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10. Phoenix 3 was shot down by narcotraffickers during gunbattle at the Morro dos Macacos in October 2009 while Phoenix 4 suffered a total loss in November 2016. The cause of the fall was a loss of tail rotor function.[13] | ||
| Bell Huey II | Special operations Armed helicopter | Huey II | 01 | Designated phoenix 5. | ||
| Eurocopter EC145 | Patrol helicopter SAR | EC145 | 01 | Designated phoenix 9 |
Since 1975, the PMERJ use dark grey blue in their uniforms. Special units have different uniforms for each service.
The PMERJ has the same hierarchical classification[14] of the Brazilian Army, with another type of insignias.[15]
All rank insignia are worn on the epaulettes of the shirt, except for sergeants, corporal and soldiers, which are worn on each sleeve, below the institutional patch (left) and state flag (right).
The PMERJ appear in Fast Five, the fifth movie of the Fast and the Furious series, where many of them are corrupt and in the payroll of drug lord Hernan Reyes, being sent to try and retrieve his vault full of his drug money after it was stolen from their station alongside the Federal Highway Police (PRF) and Rio civil police. However, thanks to Dominic Toretto and his team, all of their pursuing cruisers are destroyed, their corrupt officers slaughtered, and Reyes himself executed by DSS Agent Luke Hobbs in revenge for murdering his team back in the favelas. Only one officer is shown to be loyal and honorable to her duty as a police officer, Agent Hobbs ally in Rio, Elena Neves, whose husband served in law enforcement before he was killed in the line of duty, inspiring her to join the force, but avoid being corrupted by Reyes as so many of the other officers were. The primary vehicles of this police force featured in the film are mostly Chevy Blazers, Mazda 626, Volkswagen Passat station wagons, and Yamaha WR motorcycles.
Elite Squad is a 2007 Brazilian crime film directed by José Padilha. The film is a semi-fictional account of the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE), the Special Police Operations Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police, analogous to the American SWAT teams.