Police Ranks - Brazil

Brazil

Brazil has several different police forces, each with its own ranks. At a federal level, there are the Federal Police (Policia Federal, the equivalent to the FBI), the Federal Road Police (Policia Rodoviaria Federal) and the Train Network Police (Policia Ferroviaria Federal). At a state level, there are the Military Police (Policia Militar, not to be confused to the Army police, which has a purely internal function) and the Civil Police (Policia Civil). At a city level, there are the City Guard (Guarda Municipal). In terms of staff, the Military Police and the Civil Police are the most important one, although in terms of headlines and prestige, the Federal Police is the one that concentrates most of the media attention.

The Civil Police is responsible for investigating crimes whilst the Military Police is responsible for preventing them to take place, although it is not rare to see their functions clashing and ever so often they actually have open confronts.

The Civil Police is organized accordingly to functions. 'Escrivao' is the low rank position responsible for the internal work inside the police premises (e.g., collecting witness statements). 'Detetive' or 'investigador' (detectives) is the position responsible for actions outside the premises (e.g., investigating the circumstances of a crime), and 'delegado' (similar to Captain in USA) are senior officials (required to have law degrees) responsible for the lower ranks and for coordinating the whole work (investigations) of the Civil Police. The Civil Police also have the assistance of 'peritos', which are the technical body. The Federal Police follows a very similar structure to the Civil Police.

The ranks listed below are valid for the state military police agencies (such as PMMG, PMESP, PMERJ and others) and are listed, respectively, from higher to lower ranks:

• coronel (colonel)
• tenente-coronel (lieutenant-colonel)
• major (major)
• capitão (captain)
• 1º tenente (1st lieutenant)
• 2º tenente (2nd lieutenant)
• aspirante-a-oficial (cadet, student rank)
• subtenente (under-lieutenant)
• 1º sargento (1st sergeant)
• 2º sargento (2nd sergeant)
• 3º sargento (3rd sergeant)
• cabo (corporal)
• soldado de 1ª classe (1st class soldier)
• soldado de 2ª classe (2nd class soldier, student rank)

The 2nd class soldier and the cadet are considered to be students in the formation courses and have no street policing duties (except in a very few cases, as probationary tours). Despite closely resembling the rank structure within the Brazilian army, there are no rank of general in the military police forces, as the Military Police is slotted under the Army control in case of war, with is colonels slotting under the Army generals.