Committee demands Sao Paulo prosecutor’s office provide a report on monitoring of police
The government body has given the Public Prosecutor’s Office 30 days to provide information on how they are monitoring cases of police abuse in the state
FOTO: Mídia Ninja
The National Committee of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (CNMP) has given the São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office thirty days to provide a report on how and whether it is carrying out external monitoring of police in the state.
On 30 April, the Committee judged in favour of action launched by Conectas, Artigo 19 and the Brazilian Institute for Criminal Science (IBCCRIM) in 2017, in which they alleged that “the São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office does not have a body to monitor the police.”
The organisations based the content of the document on reports of police violence against secondary school pupils, during protests in 2015 and 2016 and against people working for the press and other media outlets, observed in a number of protests. The organisations also stressed that Public Prosecutor’s Offices have the constitutional role of monitoring the police.
“This represents recognition of the fact that the body that monitors the state Public Prosecutor’s Offices believes there is, at the very least, omission regarding the diverse cases of police brutality that have become commonplace at protests and in underprivileged areas of cities.” Says Conectas Lawyer, Henrique Apolinário.
Following this decision the Public Prosecutor’s Office has 30 working days, from the date when the request was issued by the body, on 2 May, to provide information on who in their offices is responsible for carrying out external monitoring of police activities, besides criminal prosecution, to present a detailed report on how this has been functioning since 2013 and to present the number of investigations opened and their outcome, specifically on the abuse of the use of force and disproportionate control of the right to free association and assembly.
Organisations connected to public security and human rights, who have been denouncing the Public Prosecutor’s office for a number of years over its omission regarding numerous cases of police abuse, consider the decision by this committee, responsible for administrative, financial and disciplinary monitoring of state and federal prosecutors in the whole of Brazil, to be extremely important.
