DF promises exclusive PM battalion for the three Powers – 02/06/2023 – Politics

The new Secretary of Public Security for the Federal District, Sandro Avelar, intends to create a battalion to work closer to the headquarters of the Three Powers.

The idea is to have a contingent of 500 military police officers deployed in the area, almost double the current number (280 MPs). “The PM will be more ostensibly present at the place”, says Avelar to Sheet.

The secretary says he is not in favor of creating a national guard to protect Union buildings on the Esplanada, as advocated by members of the federal government in response to the coup attacks on January 8 promoted by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

For him, the PM of the DF has the capacity to carry out its work, which, in his view, serves as a model for other states.

The interim governor of the DF, Celina Leão (PP), had already criticized the proposal to create a national guard, one of the main items in the package of legal actions presented by Minister Flávio Dino (Justice and Public Security).

Unlike the intervenor Ricardo Cappelli, who spoke of separating “the wheat from the chaff”, Avelar adopts a more moderate tone and avoided talking specifically about the role of corporations in anti-democratic acts. The secretary says it is important to wait for the completion of investigations.

He adds that, in the troop’s view, there was injustice in the arrest of the former general commander of the PM Fábio Augusto Vieira. The policeman was arrested by order of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), at the request of the Federal Police — on Friday (3), Moraes ordered the release of the former commander.

“The PM is today an institution marked by the arrest of its commander. The troop’s perception is that Colonel Fábio was doing his job. The feeling, therefore, is that there was an injustice”, says Avelar, who is a delegate federal government and assumes the command of public security in the DF for the second time.

What will be the priorities of the new management? I arrived here with the aim of pacifying public security because of what had happened on January 8th and helping to restore the conditions for the security forces of the Federal District to carry out their activities, as they always did.

I think that my main objective here is, knowing the public security of the DF and also knowing the federal government, to create this link: to join the needs of the DF and the needs of the federal government. I think what justified my coming here was this extraordinary situation that happened on the 8th. I knew the security here well and I also know the federal forces well.

Do you have a diagnosis of public security in the Federal District after January 8th, especially the Military Police? With the demonstrations, public safety had great visibility, but the issue is much bigger than that. I found here a path that was being very well trodden in the sense that projects are being implemented and crime rates are reducing. The number of homicides has dropped a lot.

So each secretary who passed through here was doing a follow-up work on the integration of forces. This started back in 2012… You can take the map, year after year homicide crimes have been reduced, we reached the peak this year. So I can only praise the way the fight against crime has been done.

Now, the situation of January 8th, absolutely exceptional, shed light on public safety in the Federal District. There is a different approach to guaranteeing the democratic process, guaranteeing the preservation of the Esplanada dos Ministérios, which is a central area of ​​Brasília, Brazil. Public safety in the Federal District is not just for people from Brasilia, it is for Brazilians, for the population.

The Military Police of the Federal District, which is highly respected, has always been able to meet these complicated demands. Traditionally, she even serves as a model for other police officers, but on that January 8, something undeniably happened that got out of hand. Now this something is being investigated through the correct channels, which are the investigations that are being initiated by the Civil Police and the Military Police.

The interventor made changes to the command of the security forces. Do you intend to change something or are you going to stay the same? I think the [interventor Ricardo] Cappelli was agile, he was sensible, he made changes to the commands in a way that he maintained the structure of the security bodies. This was a very important measure for the good results he had when he arrived here in Brasilia and faced a difficult situation like the one on January 8 in the intervention process. He managed this situation with skill, and I also intend not to make any radical, abrupt changes.

I will make the necessary adjustments in due time, it is logical that I have already made some modifications and will make others. But I don’t intend to change the command of corporations now, I think we have to continue respecting the work that was being developed and we will try to improve these works. I trust institutions, absolutely institutions. I think what we have to do are specific changes, adjustments.

What would these specific changes be? I’m a guy who really believes in the work of the Consegs [Conselho Comunitário de Segurança], are the safety councils in communities. I like doing this work, it needs to be prioritized. So I’m going to adjust in the sense of implementing a method, applying what I believe. I believe in the need to use technology to help us, especially because we have a very low staff compared to other years, for example.

What will be done to ensure the safety of the Esplanade? We intend to create a battalion to work closer to Praça dos Três Poderes, expanding the presence of military police in the area. We will increase this contingent, which is currently 280 PMs, to around 500. The PM will be more ostensibly present in the place.

Does the DF have staff to create a new battalion? There are quite a few police officers. The Federal District has peculiar situations that must be considered. Here is the capital of the country, we receive the big demonstrations precisely because it is the federal capital.

Every time there is a big demonstration, you often shift the staff that should be in the different regional offices of the DF. You are forced to take a thousand men from a corporation to put on the Esplanade and end up stripping the various satellite cities, which also need this manpower to be able to act on a day-to-day basis in the fight against crime.

You have been talking about a lack of police officers and, at the same time, about creating a new battalion. Will there be more contests? Go. We already have contests running. We recently graduated 370 more squares, there is another contest in progress with more 2,000 vacancies that are being filled little by little. The great difficulty we have is because the contests are long. You run a contest, for example, for 2,000 police officers, they will enter over three, four years. Meanwhile, there are thousands of police officers retiring a year. You end up not being able to reset at the same speed as you would like what is needed. And for that, we also have to try to increase voluntary service, bring in police officers who are already retired, who present themselves for voluntary service and with that, we try to meet this need more quickly.

What do you think of the project to create a national guard to protect the Esplanade? I understand the concern of the federal government. I defend that we don’t need a new guard because we are able to meet all the demands as always happened. What happened on the 8th will never happen again.

Did you implement any changes regarding the planning of operations, especially those related to demonstrations on the Esplanada? We have already expanded the actors that participate in this type of operation. And we already did this week, at the inauguration of the National Congress. The discussion starts to involve not only the Public Security forces of the DF, but we have also invited members of the federal government, representatives of the legislative police, of the security of the Supreme Court.

What did the troops think of the arrest of the former General Commander of the Military Police? The PM is today an institution marked by the arrest of its commander. The troop’s perception is that Colonel Fábio was doing his job. The feeling, therefore, is that there has been an injustice.

Will investigations into the participation of public security agents in the acts have priority? Will there be further departures? They are already being conducted with priority. That [afastamento] will depend on the outcome of the investigations, we need to wait and trust that they [investigações] are being done correctly and at the right time.

Capelli has been saying in lack of command on January 8th. What do you think of this statement? It is not possible to say, the investigations will point out.

Do you intend to run for an elected position at the end of your term? I no longer run for election [Avelar foi candidato a deputado federal em 2014], although I think the entry of delegates into politics is legitimate. I think this participation is legitimate because discussions related to public safety are often made by people who have not the slightest knowledge of the cause. So, I think that for the good of the country it is important that we help in the elaboration of laws that are efficient, closer to the reality of the country.

Now, it was my technical profile that brought me to this condition of being nominated [para a secretaria] by the government of the Federal District and the federal government, it was because of my technical career. So I want to use this to do a job. I sincerely believe that, by helping the Federal District here, we are helping the country — I talk about that a lot.

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Sandro Avelar, 53, is a federal police officer and already commanded the Public Security Secretariat of the Federal District under the management of Agnelo Queiroz (PT), between 2011 and 2014. In 2021, Avelar was appointed executive director of the Federal Police, the second position in the corporate hierarchy