Police Legitimacy in Brazil

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Police Legitimacy in Brazil
The primary role of law enforcement agencies is to maintain law and order in the community, and this entails the provision of public safety for all citizens. This responsibility is embedded in the constitution that stipulates the ethical standards expected of all personnel working for the judicial system. It is from such codes of behavior that the community will judge the credibility of the police department. Following this, the law enforcement agencies have adopted the concept of police legitimacy whereby they have focused their policies on the reputation and impact they make on the public (Haberfeld, Maria, and Cerrah 66). For policing to meet its objectives, the people have to acknowledge the authority of the police and are willing to cooperate to reduce crime rates. However, this has not been the case in Brazil for decades where corruption and brutality have hindered the existence of police legitimacy in the region.
The crime rate in Brazil has been increasing with the growing influence of criminal gangs that have expanded their reach in various institutions. The Drug business in the country is lucrative, and some of the revenue has been used to pay off police officers who allow the crime to continue as long as they reap benefits from the trade. This has undermined the trustworthiness of the Civil Police, and the Military police mandated to ensure security on the state –level. According to the text, the corrupt policing system fosters the growth of organized crime and their power hence crippling the ability of the government to restore the rule of law (Haberfeld, Maria, and Cerrah 73).

Neofeudalism has also been mentioned as a critical problem of the Brazilian law enforcement division, and the privatization of public governance has characterized it at the expense of the impoverished majority in the country. The society has completely lost trust in the police department, and it is considered an enemy. It, therefore, eliminates any chances of collaborative efforts between the involved parties.
Work Cited
Haberfeld, Maria R., and Ibrahim Cerrah. Comparative policing: The struggle for democratization. Sage Publications, 2007.