Working in the security sector in Brazil today is not an easy task. There is a wide range of well-known problems in this area, and when the government’s attempts to overcome them seem half-hearted, public opinion ranges from outrage to disbelief. As a result, the social forces that are needed to address these issues and bring about change are greatly weakened. 

All we are left with, it seems, is to voice our fear, to denounce - yet another time - this sorry state of affairs, and, for many, to seek isolated, individual solutions bringing no benefits to society at large.  

The Brazilian Public Security Forum emerges as a counterpoint to this point of view. Our premise is straightforward: there is a way out. In fact, there are many who are already on the right track, including a large number of Brazilian police officers and managers with a spirit of leadership and innovation, in addition to city governments willing to take the initiative, and university-based and civil society organizations building capacity and forging alliances to meet the challenge.

Convinced that a solution can be achieved, the Forum comprises public security professionals involved in initiatives which have recently - and successfully - fought many facets of crime and violence. These initiatives are seen every day in many places across Brazil, but they remain isolated because there is not a common medium to communicate and make them public. The Forum aims to bridge this gap.

Therefore, the main goal of this Forum is to acknowledge and value these initiatives, and to show that it is not only possible but also necessary to replace outrage with innovation, disbelief with integration. The challenges and hurdles are clearly huge, but it is also clear that a lot can be done to overcome them.   

In other words, our premise is clear. And the conclusion should come as no surprise, either. Rather than focusing on understanding the problems, we can and must embrace, integrate and disseminate solutions, making them a springboard for change. The expected outcome is a new, modern, democratic and efficient model for managing and structuring public security in Brazil.

The Brazilian Public Security Forum is a group initiative, open to all potential partners ranging from professionals, citizens, government, the police, the academic community and civil society. These participants are the cornerstone for all the issues described above. It is only by consistently and constructively uniting our efforts that we can move from remarkable but isolated experiments to effective change with far-reaching, lasting effects - and on the right scale.