Overview
- The Rede de Observatórios da Segurança counted 4,068 deaths from police action in 2024 across Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Pará, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, averaging 11 per day, with 3,066 Black or brown victims and a 4.2 times higher risk for Black people than whites.
- Young people bore the brunt as 57.1% of victims were 18 to 29 and 297 were adolescents, a 22.1% increase from 2023, while more than 500 records lacked race or skin‑color data.
- Bahia registered the highest toll with 1,556 deaths (38% of the total), and researchers report São Paulo’s police lethality has risen 93.8% since 2022, linking the increase to changes in body‑camera use and large violent operations.
- In Rio de Janeiro, declines previously associated by researchers with the Supreme Court’s ADPF 635 are being undercut by 2025 mega‑operations that left over 100 dead, prompting warnings that this year could outpace 2024.
- Ceará recorded 189 deaths in 2024, with Fortaleza leading city totals, and the state’s security secretariat said interventions occur to neutralize imminent threats and are investigated by police, prosecutors and oversight bodies.