Senate Approves Security PEC Without Lowering Criminal Age

Overview

• The Senate approved the PEC da Segurança Pública in two rounds, winning 73 votes in the first turn and 75 in the second, and the text will be promulgated by Congress after final processing.
• The measure constitutionalizes the Sistema Único de Segurança Pública to formalize federal coordination with states, the Federal District and municipalities and to authorize intergovernmental forces and shared intelligence systems.
• The PEC mandates harsher rules for leaders and members of criminal organizations, including required imprisonment in maximum-security facilities, limits on regime progression and measures for confiscating assets tied to crime.
• The text expands federal police roles by giving the Polícia Federal clearer remit over interstate and international cases and allowing the Polícia Rodoviária Federal to police federal railways and waterways, while permitting municipal civil police under defined oversight.
• Proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility were excluded from the approved text after a 38–36 vote to have the two competing amendments tramitar as separate PECs, a move that keeps the maioridade debate active and politically contested.