Municipal Guards Become Brazil’s Second‑Largest Security Force

Overview

• The Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública released the second edition of its Raio‑X on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, reporting about 107,457 guardas municipais in 2025 and placing them ahead of state civil police in headcount.
• The country now has roughly 818,000 security personnel in 2025 with state military police as the largest force at about 413,319 and civil police at roughly 96,902.
• The Raio‑X found wide shortfalls in state forces compared with legal quotas, estimating military police are about 34% below law‑defined targets and civil police about 45% below, with sharp variation across states.
• Researchers flagged weak data and oversight for municipal guards: many local corps lack codes of conduct, disciplinary rules or ombuds offices, and 44 municipalities exceed statutory staffing limits.
• The report highlights fiscal strain from security payrolls of about R$230 billion in 2025, a large retired workforce of roughly 424,415 and warns that the pending PEC 18/2025 vote raises urgency for standardization, external control and clearer role definitions for guardas.