{"id":5693,"date":"2016-09-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.conectas.org.inf.br\/wp\/noticias\/external-oversight-of-the-military-police\/"},"modified":"2021-03-30T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T14:10:18","slug":"external-oversight-of-the-military-police","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/external-oversight-of-the-military-police\/","title":"External oversight of the Military Police","content":"

Following the announcement by the Federal Prosecutor\u2019s Office last Tuesday that it would monitor police conduct at the next street demonstrations against the government, the S\u00e3o Paulo State Attorney General\u2019s Office, the body that controls the State Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, today acknowledged the excesses of the Military Police.<\/p>\n

In a meeting held this Thursday, September 8, the S\u00e3o Paulo State Attorney General, Gianpaolo Poggio Smanio, proposed creating a group formed by civil society representatives and government institutions to \u201cimprove the actions of the police at protests\u201d.<\/p>\n

The announcement was made after human rights organizations, in February this year, submitted a representation<\/u><\/a> to the State Attorney General\u2019s Office claiming that the S\u00e3o Paulo Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office was not doing its job controlling police excesses, as required by the Federal Constitution and state legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that this proposal by the Attorney General signals that the Office recognizes what civil society has been denouncing for a long time, with abundant proof and evidence: that the police are violently repressing demonstrators who exercise their right to protest,\u201d said Rafael Cust\u00f3dio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the recent cases of police violence and abuse of power at demonstrations, we emphasize the urgency of ceasing the illegal practice of \u2018arrest for verification\u2019 and of preventing lawyers and public defenders from communicating with detainees,\u201d said Andr\u00e9 Kehdi, president of IBCCRIM (Brazilian Criminal Sciences Institute).<\/p>\n

The proposal was presented at an emergency meeting in the presence of the S\u00e3o Paulo Military Police command, the state public security secretary M\u00e1gino Alves Barbosa Filho and the state justice secretary M\u00e1rcio Elias Rosa.<\/p>\n

The organizations that submitted the representation, which were also present at the meeting, have requested that the S\u00e3o Paulo Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office appoint members to oversee the Military Police at protests and that it clearly specify the legal procedures to be followed in cases of violations.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, they have also asked that GECEP (the unit of the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office created to perform the external oversight of the police) provide information on all the measures taken to combat police abuse and that the Military Police publicly disclose its own procedures regulating police action at demonstrations, the so-called \u201cPOP\u201d (Standard Operating Procedures) which is currently a secret document.<\/p>\n