Police involved in 4 out of every 10 shootings in the first half of the year in Salvador, Belém, Recife

To record the records, the institute uses collaborative collection via a cell phone application, with real-time checking, in addition to an open database on armed violence. In the same period last year, police participation in shootings was 33%.

In total, in the first six months of 2026, there were 2,403 people shot in the 57 municipalities covered by monitoring in the period: 1,628 dead and 775 injured. Of the victims, 901 were hit in police actions; agents were involved in 989 shootings.

"For three decades, the State has been repeating the same formula, a public security model that is incapable of dismantling armed groups and that does not guarantee security to the population, not even in the face of increased police participation in conflicts", assesses Terine Husek Coelho, research manager at the Fogo Cruzado Institute.

Salvador and the metropolitan region record significant participation of police forces in shootings: 56% of the 656 shootings involved police actions - above Rio (47%), Belém (45%) and Recife (9%).

Of the 637 victims in the capital of Bahia and surrounding areas, 340 were affected by police actions; 93% of the 14 actions with multiple deaths, called massacres by the study, occurred in operations, with 49 deaths. The Northeast neighborhoods of Amaralina and Pirajá accounted for 37% of deaths in so-called police massacres.

"Public security policy is unable to contain the high fatality rates and data has shown this for some time", says Tailane Muniz, regional coordinator of the institute in Bahia.

"Exposure to violence is something real, not just a sensation. Police lethality remains high and, even though the government celebrates tiny reductions, time passes and the reality is the same: the logic of confrontation continues to structure the State's actions", he adds.

In the four regions, shootings in disputes between factions increased by 12% (181 to 203), and in robberies, by 9% (239 to 260).

Rio faces record in disputes between factions

Grande Rio had 976 shootings. The police participated in 47% of cases - the highest level in the first six months of the year since 2017.

In disputes between armed groups, despite the 35% drop in the number of shootings, the number of victims reached the highest rate ever mapped in the historical series, with 144 people shot, corresponding to an increase of 78%.

There were 147 people shot during robberies or attempted robberies, an increase of 40%, the highest level in the last four years.

The municipality of Rio concentrated 64% of the shootings; Maré led by neighborhood, and Taquara had the highest number of people shot (29).

Recife had the lowest number of shootings since 2019 (645, a drop of 12%), but it already has the highest number of shootings in police actions in the series: 60 cases, an increase of 88%.

The number of people shot in robberies, 89% higher than that recorded from January to June 2025, is also a record compared to the first half of the previous four years (53 victims).

"A security policy based solely on confrontation does not bring more security to the population and fuels risk dynamics. Combating organized crime requires coordinated and integrated long-term actions, such as tracking and disarticulating financial flows and their leaders", assesses Ana Maria Franca, regional coordinator of the Fogo Cruzado Institute in Pernambuco.

Belém: record indoors

In Belém, the 234 shootings represent a 20% drop, but police actions account for 45% of cases.

Armed violence invaded the domestic environment, reaching a record level: 59 people were shot when they were indoors, a number 90% higher than that accumulated in the first half of 2025 alone and equal to that recorded between January and December 2025.

Police actions and operations were responsible for 76% of those shot within these spaces.

"The growth of armed violence within homes reveals a crisis that goes beyond public security. It exposes the absence of territorial governance in areas where the State only arrives in a reactive and armed way", says Eryck Batalha, regional coordinator of the institute in Pará.

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Guofang Huang, 53, was taken to the Guarulhos Provisional Detention Center 1. Funeral for collector Diêgo Rafael da Silva takes place this Tuesday (28) at the Vila Formosa cemetery, east zone