Number of firefighters, military and civil police officers drops

Brazil had at least 480,000 civil and military police officers on active duty in 2020, according to the survey Profile of Public Security Institutions released on Friday (Jul. 1) by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

The sum of military police officers on active duty across the country in 2020 totaled 385,883 people – 341,152 men and 44,731 women. The civil police force comprised 94,418 agents – 69,817 men and 24,601 women, the survey reads.

Counted separately, firefighters had 63,644 active-duty soldiers, of which 55,949 were men and 7,695 women. Together, the three categories totaled 543,945 officers. A slightly smaller number than the approximately 555,000 firefighters, military and civil police officers on active duty in March 2021, according to the 15th Brazilian Public Security Yearbook released by the Brazilian Public Security Forum.

Reduction

The same survey on the profile of public security institutions released in 2020 pointed out that, in 2018, both the number of military and civil police officers was higher than those released on Friday. In 2018 there were 414,932 military and 112,837 civil officers in the country.

In 2018, the state of São Paulo with the largest police force in the country had 83,044 military and 29,140 civil police officers, whereas in 2020 these numbers dropped to 81,664 and 22,041 respectively. In Rio de Janeiro, with the second-largest police contingent in the country, the numbers dropped from 44,020 military and 9,058 civil police officers in 2018 to respectively 44,336 and 7,309 in 2020.

Fleet

While the military police vehicle fleet across the country exceeds 78,000 units, that of civil police does not reach 41,000. And the military fire brigades have 15,373 vehicles. The three institutions have aircraft: the military police have 83 helicopters; firefighters have 46 and the civil police have 24.

The survey also details the composition of the security forces in all Brazilian states including race/color, age, service time, position, and education, among other aspects. The majority (60%) of the members of the military police finished high school, and 30 percent attended higher education. On the other hand, in the civil police, the situation is the opposite, 62 percent of the force have a university degree, and 22 percent finished high school.