4th Auxiliary Police Bureau
The bureau's primary activity was intelligence gathering through infiltrated agents, informants, wiretaps, and surveillance of suspects in public spaces, workplaces, and homes.
The immediate reason for its creation was the rise of the tenentist movement, which necessitated an entity to protect the First Brazilian Republic's government from a series of military conspiracies.
The 4th Bureau's agents targeted military personnel, members of the political elite, anarchists, communists, and common criminals.
During most of the long state of emergency under president Artur Bernardes (1922–1926), its head was major Carlos Reis, under whom the prisons became overcrowded, and the police were accused of torture and even killing detainees, notably in the Conrado Niemeyer case.
President Artur Bernardes signed a decree reorganizing the Civil Police of the Federal District on 20 November 1922, five days after taking office.
[2][3] The Inspectorate of Investigation and Public Security, established in 1920 during the administration of Epitácio Pessoa, was the first police body officially created to preserve the political regime.
[7] Initially small, with one commissioner and seven agents in 1917, the Social Order and Public Security Section continuously grew in importance.
Anarcho-syndicalist agitation among workers was reaching its peak during the strikes of 1917–1919, and political police activities first developed to monitor this environment and later expanded to include elite opposition figures.
On 29 February 1920, two days after the regulations for the Inspectorate were published in the Official Gazette, Brazil signed a treaty with Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Peru under the auspices of the League of Nations for the exchange of information on "anarchic acts".
According to the law, the 4th Bureau would receive the "necessary credit," unlike most government agencies, which faced fixed allocations due to the economic crisis.
[27] The decree establishing the 4th Auxiliary Police Bureau did not modify the responsibilities or level of autonomy of the now-defunct Inspectorate of Investigation and Public Security.
Its novelty lay in the "routine of systematizing and exchanging information to guide the security agenda", with significant attention given to the production and storage of reports and statistics.
[30] The Social Order and Public Safety Section aimed to "safeguard the political existence and internal security of the Republic, employ preventative measures to maintain order, ensure the free exercise of individual rights, maintain maximum vigilance against anarchist expressions or forms, and promptly act on the expulsion of dangerous foreigners".
[33] The evolution of political policing continued, spurred by the centralization of power under Getúlio Vargas and the response to political-ideological uprisings against his administration.
[34] The DESPS eventually evolved into a series of other agencies, and after Brazil's capital was moved to Brasília, it became the DOPS of the state of Guanabara.
[21][37] In the 1920s, the bureau began cooperating with institutions outside the capital, especially in São Paulo, and in the following decade, it established "Identification Offices" within other police agencies to exchange information.
[40] The fear of conspiracies was so great that on 17 September 1925, Carlos Reis himself was summoned to testify about a trip he had made to São Paulo in the company of army major Thiago Barroso.
The new chief was lieutenant colonel Bandeira de Melo, who criticized the previous administration: "The political police among us caused an almost complete paralysis of true investigative work and had the effect of relaxing discipline".
He distinguished between political and criminal investigations, arguing that the former was inadequate and ineffective because police officers lacked the connections to infiltrate conspiracies against the government.
[9] One example of a monitored individual was former president Nilo Peçanha, leader of the Republican Reaction and Bernardes' rival in the 1922 presidential election.
[50] Carneiro da Fontoura incorporated a group of sergeants into the bureau who operated clandestinely, posing as civilian agents.
[53] Surveillance against the tenentist movement was conducted near army units, such as Pedro Ivo Avenue, República Square, and Praia Vermelha.
An automobile patrol operated around the Central do Brasil Railway, which military personnel used daily to commute between their homes and workplaces.
