Production of non-lethal weapons and their use by the public security in Brazil

An exclusive article for the montlhy newsletter “En la mira – The Latin American Small Arms Watch.” Click here for subscriptions and for previous issues.

Antonio Carlos Magalhães, Institutional relations Director at Condor S.A., talks about the production and use of non-lethal armament by the Brazilian public security forces.

Besides it being a philosophical, moral and legal issue, the respect towards human rights - and specially twoards the right to life –is also a technical matter. In order to enforce and reaffirm the law, public security agents have to be well trained and well equipped to use force in the adequate proportion. Therefore, the use of non-lethal armament can’t be seen simply as an alternative to the use of force, but as another valuable resource for public security agents. Reducing the lethality should be, the north which orients society – and especially those involved in the security issue.

As a result of the interview given to Júlio Cesar Purcena, researcher of En la Mira for economic issues, follows Antonio Carlos Magalhães's dissertation aboout the use of non-lethal technology and how it can contribute in public security agents’ day-to-day.

“Condor exists since 1985, during that period non-lethal technology was known by another terminology – chemical ammunition. Starting from the ninety’s, we adopted the non-lethal terminology, which is exactly the  U.S. Defense Department’s approach to what is defined as armament used to temporarily incapacitate. The goal is to reduce or neutralize a conflictive action without causing serious injury or death. This is in accordance with what has been discussed in international organisms that deal with human right’s defense, mainly the UN.

In 1990 there was a congress in Havana, in which the use of firearms issue was discussed. In their general dispositions, they recommended non-lethal resources to be used as much as possible, in order to reduce the victimization and unnecessary serious injuries. That is a worldwide trend  that should be taken into account specially by us, Brazilians, who live in a tragic situation, specially in Rio de Janeiro, where there’s a situation of extreme violence, caused also by the police.

This situation is not recent, it’s an historical issue. Therefore, we have to find instruments to alter this course. Non-lethal technology, as a said when giving its definition, enables the law enforcement agent to dispose of alternatives to the use of force. Nowadays, you see a police officer use either a firearm or a baton, but there are situations which he won’t be able to resolve with a baton, nonetheless with a firearm. Hence, non-lethal resources come to fill this lacuna, and there are many technologies available.

Nowadays, Condor produces over one hundred products through Welser Itage, which are sold in Brazil and abroad. Welser Itage is a company part of the group responsible for all the commercial negotiation, it started a while after Condor did. The most well-known products are the smoke grenades, the rubber bullets and, more recently, the pepper spray. We also produce different variations of the pepper spray, which are in fact different devices that release the pepper in the form of aerosol, foam or gel. Which are the advantages and differences in comparison with the aerosol? Using aerosol, the whole environment is affected. Therefore, in situations that require a punctual action using the foam will reach the target and protect the environment. The gel has the same characteristic. These are the sort of technological innovations we search for.

Still on the more modern technologies, using rubber bullets still generates certain doubts since some people think it may hurt or even kill..We also have rubber and explosive grenades. They are made with soft material, not cutting, which has a stunting and intimidating effect. They are also being used within prescribed activities and they are very efficient. These are large families. We have variations in performance between different products in these families. Also, we have grenades to open and closed environments. With that, for instance, it can be launched in a situation of a criminal with hostages, in an environment that he will create a situation of temporary incapacity without hurting anyone.

With regard to the use of this material by the forces of public security in Brazil, I can mention that after that event of Carandiru, which was a terrible trauma for all of us, Brazilians, including with international repercussions, the police in Sao Paulo sought to us to train them. Then all the police interventions in the prison environment must be done with non-lethal equipment. Since then, there were no records of deaths caused by firearms in such interventions. This was a learning process. And it was big step that the Police of Sao Paulo has taken to have the non-lethal technology adopted in a systematic and doctrinaire way.

Today, you have in ostensible policing at least one pepper spray, every military/civil policeman which is characteristic of police enforcement in Sao Paulo. And you've got what became known as decentralization of shock activities, because there are still people who think that use of such technology is exclusive of special forces and, actually, it is not. Today, it can be used by private security guards, municipal guards and civilian police. A typical situation: you are at a police station and you have an inmate who committed a serious offense that generated a trauma to the community, then some people decided to take him away. So, how to deal with this types of situation? The civil policemen are not special forces, they are an investigative police, but it may have to use instruments of special forces to protect and serve.

The non-lethal technology lies in all police activities. Today, there are no restrictions. Just to get a picture, as mentioned previously, private security forces already use this material. However, the legislation is being discussed because there is a specific set of rules for this, since there are a number of indications and recommendations.

Mr. Raul Jungmann, through the Parliamentary Hearing Commission on Arms Trafficking, requested to the authorities of the government of Sao Paulo to give evidence on the reduction of homicides in the state.  At the time the Secretary of Public Security, [Ronaldo] Augusto [Bretas] Marzagão, the Head of Civil Police, [Mauritius Jose] Lemos Freire, and the commander of the PM, Cel. [Roberto Antonio] Diniz. For the secretary of public security there was a greater concern with the training of police and the use of force, when use of force is spoken; it is presumed that is not in its lethal form. The commander of the PM was more specific and used the keyword. He said that Sao Paulo has been promoting the training of its policemen for a long time, including in usage of non-lethal technologies. In our perspective, this is contributing to the reduction of violence.

In Rio de Janeiro, for example, when Astério Pereira dos Santos was Secretary of Penitentiary Administration of during the government of Governor [Anthony] Garotinho, we always had rebellions, mainly in the complex of Bangu. Then, a group of Tactical Intervention was created. They are not police officers, they are penitentiary agents. Because the police officers, when enter the environment of the penitentiary will have two problems: first they don’t know the layout of the prison, and second,they are foreign to the place. The penitentiary agent knows everything, including the inmates, so he can be successful in suffocating the movement, at first sight of trouble. When Fernandinho Beira-Mar was taken to jail and transferred, there was a rebellion, and it was used non-lethal technology such as grenades and a series of explosive materials, and by its effective use they managed to enter the prison and suffocate the rebellion.

From that moment, the staff has been trained and today they have been regarded as excellent in procedure, which can be verified by them teaching these procedures to the Armed Forces. Soldiers who went to Haiti were trained by these agents. The prisoners know that in any attempt, they will be treated with dignity because the response of the agent will be proportional, it will not be overstated. When you have exacerbation of force, you have an answer to violence. You can see the world when the American military in Iraq or English is an operation that, the answer comes with terror, it comes with more intensity. So you have a feedback of the process.

Here in Rio de Janeiro, those fights you had inside and outside Maracanã stadium were formerly suppressed with batons, firearms or swords. When the police are with batons at the waist, the public views as something natural, but as soon as the policeman takes the baton from the waist, it becomes an instrument of violence. As in fact is, the baton when misused can even kill a person. Today the group [GEPE] which deals with security around the Maracanã uses spray.

Some complain, but the use is reversible, because after a while that effect wears off. On the other hand the police officers, without alternatives and cornered, will draw a gun and shoot up. Hence, the bullet up and down with energy, will eventually hit someone, which is the collateral damage. Why? Because he wasn’t given any alternative. But if you offer him an alternative, he may even, in extreme cases, have to use a firearm, but this use will be legitimized by the attempt he made rationing of the force up to the limit. These are all aspects of technology that are essential in non-lethal security activity.

Earlier today I was gathering information on events that have been occurring in bank agencies. You have no idea! People die all the time…Because the security guard is armed inside the agency. Last year there was a famous case at an agency of the Itaú Bank, last week there was another case in São Paulo. We are researching and there are many cases that don’t make the big media, stories of people being shot on the street because the security guard inside the bank agency dropped his gun, and many other cases. So now I ask: having an armed security guard in the bank agency will prevent the robbery? Do you think they prevent robberies? If there’s a confrontation, what will happen? We, the “mortals” are the ones who have to go in o withdraw or deposit our money. We are going to be the victims…

But if it’s a non-lethal firearm, an electric pistol, for example, it will incapacitate even an armed person. Eventually, it can happen to somebody who’s stressed out, tries to get through the door and can’t, starts complaining and causing some riot. If the non-lethal resource is used, there might even be an argument, but you preserve that person’s life.It happens all the time, but these cases aren’t fully reported and people only want to know about the more serious ones.”