Brazil reduces violent deaths, but police lethality increases and agent suicides remain high

Although Brazil has reduced intentional violent deaths and recorded its lowest level in the past 14 years, indicators involving police officers are moving in the opposite direction.

Data from the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook show that police lethality resumed its growth in 2025 and reached the highest level in the historical series, rising from 6,237 in 2024 to 6,602 this year. In absolute numbers, it is the highest total since 2017, the first year covered by the survey.

The situation is also concerning when the focus turns to security agents themselves. In 2025, 110 police officers took their own lives, equivalent to one death every three days.

Despite a 12.7% reduction compared to the previous year, the figure is 48.6% higher than that observed in 2017, when 74 cases were recorded.

Data from Sinesp, the national public security information system of the Ministry of Justice, updated through June of this year, show that the growth in deaths resulting from police intervention persists when comparing the first six months of 2026 with the same period in 2025. Suicides, meanwhile, are showing a downward trend so far.

Leonardo Silva, coordinator of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, states that there is a frequently overlooked connection between the rise in police lethality and the deteriorating health of officers, which can lead to suicide.

According to him, public security policy is still based on a drug enforcement model inherited from the 1960s and 1970s, centered on repression and incapable of addressing the structural causes of violence.

In practice, operations primarily target the lower ranks of criminal factions, whose members are quickly replaced, while police officers remain permanently exposed to stress, violence, and the risk of death.

Just as they kill, police officers also die. In 2025, 139 officers were murdered. Despite a reduction compared to recent years, Leonardo states that the number remains high and demonstrates that professionals continue to be exposed to violence.

"The result of this permanent uphill battle is severe physical and mental illness among public servants," he says.

In his view, institutional support is insufficient. Beyond the scarcity of psychology and psychiatry teams, many police officers avoid seeking help out of fear of stigma within their forces.

The executive director of Instituto Sou da Paz, Carolina Ricardo, also sees police lethality and suicide as reflections of the same structural problem.

According to her, the culture of the police-hero creates the expectation that officers be superhuman, incapable of showing vulnerability, which makes it harder for them to seek psychological care.

Carolina states that police forces still prioritize confronting crime at the expense of protecting officers themselves and managing the use of force.

In her view, the absence of policies focused on professional recognition, mental health, and use-of-force protocols contributes both to officers' deteriorating health and to the rise in police lethality.

"Behind the image of the hero, police officers face common problems such as debt, excessive alcohol use, and family conflicts. Without an institutional environment that addresses mental health openly, these problems accumulate," she says.

She adds that the discourse of leadership also influences the behavior of corporations. According to her, when governors and commanders prioritize control and the technical use of force, lethality rates tend to fall. When violence is legitimized, the opposite movement occurs.

The Ministry of Justice and Public Security stated, in a note, that it is trying to change this scenario, maintaining actions aimed at valuing public security professionals, including mental health promotion initiatives.

According to the ministry, resources from the National Public Security Fund are transferred annually to the states and can be used, in accordance with legislation, in programs to value agents, including mental health assistance actions.

The ministry also cited the Escuta Susp Project, which offers online psychological and psychiatric care, free of charge, confidential and specialized, to professionals from state security forces and municipal guards, in partnership with states and municipalities.

Regarding the increase in deaths resulting from police intervention, the ministry reported that it develops national policies to qualify the performance of security forces, with a focus on protecting life and respecting human rights.

Among the initiatives mentioned are the National Body Camera Project and the National Use of Force Qualification Project.

The data also show that the evolution of indicators varies significantly among states. In some cases, such as Rio Grande do Norte, there was a simultaneous worsening of all three indicators: police lethality, suicides, and deaths of police officers.