Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo

The Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo ("São Paulo State Military Police") is a law enforcement agency (Polícia Militar) in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is the largest state police force in the country, with over 180,000 personnel in its rank and file distributed across several battalions (BPM - Batalhão de Policiamento Militar) all over the state as well as within the Greater São Paulo region (Grande São Paulo) which comprises 40 cities and towns.

Mission and Organization

Its primary function is to patrol public places such as city streets, state highways and forests in the entire state. They are further divided into specialized units as follows:- Polícia Rodoviária Estadual is the state highway patrol division; - Polícia Florestal is the name given to the forest patrol division; - COE (Comando de Operações Especiais) is the elite counter-terrorism response team; - Serviço de Inteligência is their criminal intelligence division; - Cavalaria/Tropa de Choque is their mounted crowd control division; - Corregedoria is the team that specializes in investigating criminal incidents involving police staff; - Grupo de Policiamento Tático is the name given to units that perform community policing especially in areas troubled by violence; - ROTA (Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar) is the elite paramilitary division founded in 1970 that has been frequently used to patrol areas with higher crime rates as well as providing backup to regular forces if they find themselves in dangerous situations.

Their mandate is to uphold criminal law and enforce peace and order in the 247,000 km² (95408 sq mi) of state territory, as well as to provide security to the state Governor and his family as well as state government buildings. They have at their disposal several helicopters such as the Eurocopter AS-355N Écureil ("esquilo") under the Águia (eagle) codename.

This force has two police academies, one simply known as "Escolinha da PM" (Police School) where non-commissioned constables (holding ranks of Private, Corporal or Sergeant) are trained on policing duties, state and federal laws and other topics such as CPR training; whereas officers are trained at Academia do Barro Branco -- this academy has a four-year programme equivalent to a University degree and thus has all the same pre-requisites and examination processes that regular universities in Brazil should have.

History

It was founded by Brigadier General Rafael Tobias de Aguiar on December 15, 1831, originally as São Paulo Municipal Imperial Guard (an ancient full circle police).

External links

* [http://www.polmil.sp.gov.br/ Official site] (Portuguese)