The Homeland Security Annual Report 2022 (Perhaps 2022) is the responsibility of the Internal Security System and gathers criminal data from the Security Forces and Services (FSS), having been prepared during the 1st quarter of this year 2023 and published at the beginning of April.
Rogério COPETO
Colonel of the GNR
Master in Law and Security and Homeland Security Auditor
So, every year around this time the written and spoken media bring to public knowledge, the results of its analysis to the RASI, always placing emphasis on the number of crimes registered by the FSS and which are referred to in the first chapter, always giving special emphasis to the increase or decrease in general crime and serious and violent crime.
And according to the RASI of 2022, last year were registered 343.945 which corresponds to an increase of 14,1% compared to the year 2021 and violent and serious crime also increased by 14,4%, having been registered 13.281 crimes. Verifying that the criminality that was denounced to the police in 2022 increased, compared to the year 2021.
But the RASI of 2022 and all the others before this one, also include the crime prevention work carried out by the FSS, since RASI is more than a repository of data on crimes, it is also in the subchapter “Prevention”, where all the work carried out by the FSS in the context of crime prevention is made known.
In this part of the RASI 2022 all activities developed by the FSS are described in the “General Prevention Programs”, it is important to mention that in the context of prevention, all FSS carry out prevention actions, with the GNR and the PSP being the ones that carry out more prevention activities, reaching the thousands of information and awareness actions, targeting the most vulnerable population, as children, the elderly, the women, the disabled, traders and victims of crime, in pro-action and preventive work, within the scope of proximity/community policing.
Without wanting to be too exhaustive in the description of all the activities carried out in all the “General Prevention Programs”, we highlight, its importance, the work developed by the GNR and the PSP in those programs that are operated by both Security Forces, knowing that both the GNR and the PSP also develop other programs and initiatives exclusively, such as the GNR's "Senior Census" program, which aims to signal elderly people who live alone and/or isolated or the PSP's "Melhor Aqui" program, which aims to prevent and locate missing children and adults.
So, in addition to the “Support Program 65 - Safety in the Elderly ", where they were held 15.752 awareness-raising, in “Secure Trade” carried out 5.047 actions directed at merchants, in “Secure Supply” were 358 Actions, in “Safe Taxi” 48 actions and in the “Safe Pharmacy” 257 Actions.
Also because of its importance and because it even has its own subchapter, called “School Safety”, we highlight the work developed by the GNR and the PSP, under the "Safe School Program", It has been made 40.763 awareness-raising, in 7.808 schools and covering 1.544.260 students.
Despite this preventive activity carried out by the GNR and the PSP under the “Safe School Program”, it was unable to prevent the increase in criminal occurrences in 93,3%, registering up 4.634, having however, those of a non-criminal nature decreased by 31,7%, with a log 1.433.
And not wanting to bore readers with more numbers, because we know that the majority of the population knows the work, which has been developed by the FSS, especially by GNR and PSP, either within the aforementioned programs, or in other lesser known, thousands of actions were carried out, but that a closer reading of the RASI 2022 may enlighten the reader as to the multitude of existing programs and the very important and relevant work, that hundreds of GNR soldiers and PSP agents perform throughout the year, for the most vulnerable population.
All of these programs aim to reduce crime., betting in the visible and near, where the creation of projects and initiatives, targeting the most vulnerable population, has played a leading role in the results recorded in recent years.
That is why we believe that the crime recorded in the year 2022, despite an increase, would know a much worse record, if it weren't for the work carried out by these GNR soldiers and PSP agents, that in the scope of proximity/community policing, develop their activity exclusively in the “General Prevention and Policing Programs”, with great professionalism and dedication, going far beyond what is required of them.
So, the excellent work developed by the FSS, in the prevention of crime, that they performed every day of the year 2022, had no correspondence with the results of criminality, so for the year 2023 efforts should be made to prevent, reinforcing and increasing proximity/community policing actions, because to counteract the increase in crime, must counteract with more and better prevention.
