Institutionalizing the Use of Evidence to Fight Crime and Reduce Police Violence

Rio de Janeiro State´s Citizen Security Secretariat and Military Police struggle to fight high rates of crime with a police force that many consider corrupt and violent. Moreover, little is known about the causes of police violence, how police violence affects trust in the state, and what policies can effectively reduce it. Through this partnership, Claudio Ferraz and J-PAL LAC helped Citizen Security Institute of the State Government of Rio de Janeiro (ISP-Rio) lay the groundwork that will allow it to address some of these questions. GPI funds supported a J-PAL Research Associate to sit inside ISP-Rio for one year to organize its data more effectively. Along with organizing data, she also helped ISP-Rio develop ISP-Geo, a platform that allows police officers to view real-time data on crime, police presence, and environmental factors, and to dispatch additional police officers to priority areas. After GPI funds had supported the Research Associate for one year, ISP-Geo decided to hire her as a full-time state employee. For more on the partnership with ISP-Rio, see this news story from August 2016 and this blog post from February 2018.