Brasília, July 23, 2026 (Lusa) - Police in Brazil killed 6,602 people in 2025, averaging 18 deaths per day and marking the highest absolute figure in the historical record, according to a new report by the Brazilian Forum on Public Security.
The number of deaths resulting from police interventions rose by 5.4% compared with 2024 and reflects a structural reality of everyday life in the country, according to the survey by the non-governmental organisation, which published the 20th Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security 2026 on Thursday.
Over the course of a decade, between 2015 and 2025, police operations in Brazil resulted in the deaths of 60,558 people.
Whilst intentional homicides fell, police lethality followed the opposite trend, accounting for one in every six intentional violent deaths.
The profile of the victims continues to reflect a pattern of inequality, with 99.3% of those killed being men and 82% being Black people.
Among Brazil's states, Amapá, in the North, recorded the highest rate of police lethality, with 17.1 deaths, followed by Bahia, in the North-East, with 10.6.
For the Brazilian Forum on Public Security, ‘Operation Containment', carried out in October 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, symbolises this situation, having resulted in 122 deaths over two days, surpassing the Carandiru Massacre of 1992, which resulted in the deaths of 111 prisoners.
The yearbook highlights that «the current challenge is no longer merely operational but now involves mechanisms for institutional control, transparency, accountability and preventing public institutions from being taken over by organised crime».
The non-governmental organisation highlights the need for measures such as body cameras for public security officers to ensure that police use of force is a last resort.
«It is a fact that some of the deaths resulting from police intervention may be linked to the legitimate use of force. However, based on the data obtained, it is not possible to distinguish which cases are legitimate and which are not,» the report states.
«In all cases, monitoring measures are required, such as the continuous use of body cameras, as well as internal oversight through internal affairs departments and external oversight through the Public Prosecutor's Office's investigations into the Brazilian police forces,» it concluded.
MYMA/ADB // ADB.
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