Interviews

The mere mention of Costa Rica evokes cascading waterfalls, pristine beaches and tropical forests. The country is also synonymous with living peacefully but it now begins to face the challenge of protecting its security, affected by so many internal issues such as impunity and corruption and global phenomena such as the drug trade and common crime.

Ludmila Ribeiro, from Brazil’s Getúlio Vargas Foundation, carried out a comparative study of the factors associated with court delay in criminal justice proceedings in the United States and in Brazil. Among the contrasting points in both legal systems, she points out that the accused prefer a speedy trial in the US, and lengthy proceedings in Brazil.

Recently appointed Executive Secretary of theState Office for Social Services and Human Rights, Coordinator of the NGO Observatório de Favelas, Jailson de Souza e Silva, is imbued with the mission to bring social policies to the communities served by Pacifying Police Units, UPPs in Rio de Janeiro.

During his tenure as head of police in New York and in Los Angeles, William Bratton was credited with modernizing the police force in the United States, adopting crime maps and diagnostic information that made police more accountable and brought crime rates down. “Police cannot be reactive, it must act in crime prevention”, said Bratton, detailing his tenets in an exclusive interview for Comunidad Segura.

Sociologist Luiz Antonio Machado da Silva, from Rio de Janeiro's Iuperj
and UFRJ, discusses the risks and virtues of the new Unidades de Polícia
Pacificadora (UPPs), or Pacifying Police Units, that have been
celebrated by the media, but seen with concern by the rest of the
population.

In an exclusive article for Comunidad Segura, Alexandra Valéria Vicente da Silva, a psychologist of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro tells us about the prejudices overcome and the valued services of psychologists available for those in uniform and with their lives often on the line.

Public Security Programme Coordinator of the UN-LiREC, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, William Godnick gave InterCambio an exclusive interview on his new police training course and comments on the role of police training in lowering youth violence.

Venezuela's Luis Gerardo Gabaldón has been studying mechanisms of social control as responses to crime, and states that some of the failures of the current police forces in the region may be attributed to the fact these mechanisms are disconnected from the control of police violence. The professor discusses the need for practical training manuals and adequate training for police officers.

Comunidad Segura interviewed Joyce Freda Apio, Ugandan lawyer and member of the human rights organization HURINET-U, on the recent push for police accountability in Uganda. Their work has called for civilian oversight of police for both professional misconduct and human rights abuses, but ultimately they also want to build public confidence in the police force.

Described as a Narco-state by the United Nations, Guinea-Bissau has become a strategic point in the international drug route to Europe. Luis Vaz Martins, president of the Guinea-Bissau Human Rights League gave Comunidad Segura an exclusive interview. 'We need the support of the international community', he says.