Police Killed 4,068 People in 2024 Across Nine Brazilian States

Overview

• Rede de Observatórios’ sixth Pele Alvo bulletin reports 4,068 police killings in 2024 across Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Pará, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, up slightly from 4,025 in 2023 and averaging about 11 per day.
• Of the victims with recorded race, 3,066 were black or brown, and the study finds black people are 4.2 times more likely than whites to be killed by police, with race/color missing in more than 500 records.
• Young people are overrepresented, with 57.1% aged 18–29 and 297 adolescents killed, a 22.1% increase from 2023.
• Bahia had the highest toll with 1,556 deaths as trends diverged by state, including rising lethality in São Paulo following changes to body-camera use and concerns that 2025 operations in Rio may reverse earlier court-driven declines.
• Ceará recorded 189 deaths in 2024, 79.3% of them black, and its security secretariat says lethal force is used to neutralize imminent threats and cases are investigated by the civil police and prosecutors.