Novas institucionalidades democráticas: a participação da população na gestão da segurança pública no estado do Tocantins

Abstract

The 1988 Federal Constitution was a fundamental milestone in the transition to democracy in Brazil, by establishing a new legal order focused on the protection of human dignity, the latter being one of the foundations of the constitutionally provided Democratic State of Law. Although the new constitutional order provides for a series of rights and guarantees, a major bottleneck still remains regarding the lack of knowledge on the part of the Brazilian population of the content of the guarantees carved out in the constitutional text. It is of utmost importance to create public policies that seek to raise awareness among the population about their rights, thus seeking to ensure the effectiveness of constitutional guarantees. Therefore, it is essential that the State promotes access to information and civic education, enabling citizens to fully exercise their citizenship and actively participate in the construction of a democratic society. The field of public safety, historically far removed from popular participation, needs to be rethought. Even with social control initiatives, such as ombudsman offices and councils, the population still participates timidly in the management of security. In Tocantins, measures such as the "Talk to the Ombudsman Office SSP-TO" app and the Public Safety Council are examples of how this dialogue can be promoted, but there is still a long way to go in terms of direct citizen involvement. The research highlights the important role of the Civil Police in this process of citizen inclusion, since police stations are often the gateway to social demands. The research is structured around the discussion on popular participation in security policies, addressing legal and institutional aspects of the police and proposing alternatives to foster this collaboration, such as the creation of an information booklet and a Normative Instruction regulating the use and provision of the latter, and the creation of a program for community participation in the management of public safety in Tocantins. Furthermore, the objective is to analyze the mechanisms of popular participation in the management of public security in Tocantins, focusing on the actions of the Civil Police, in which crime data from the main cities of Tocantins will be analyzed, and the creation of instruments that will foster the engagement of the population in the management of state public security will be proposed. Furthermore, the mechanisms of citizen participation existing in Tocantins were studied, and the records of occurrences from 2022 to 2024 in the cities of Palmas, Araguaína and Gurupi were analyzed, carrying out a qualitative and quantitative analysis, in addition to an in-depth bibliographic review. The scope of said analysis was to assess whether said records reveal a lack of coordination between the population and the public security forces. Therefore, the creation of a technical product was proposed, consisting of an information booklet followed by a normative instruction, with the focus on promoting the engagement of the population with the Civil Police. The creation of an information booklet is suggested as a guidance tool for citizens to understand how they can collaborate with public safety, helping to formulate more effective and participatory policies. In addition to providing information, the booklet would have the objective of stimulating dialogue between the population and the police, promoting a relationship of trust and collaboration. Likewise, the formulation of a normative instruction dealing with the booklet elsewhere and also the creation of the community participation program in security management will establish a firm bridge between the civil police and society. That said, we sought to demonstrate how communication and guidance strategies can boost the engagement of the population of Tocantins in the management of state public security, functioning as tools to strengthen ties between citizens and police institutions, aiming to establish a more accessible, agile and effective criminal justice system, resulting in the effective protection of the public security of Tocantins citizens. The research concluded that it is of fundamental importance to implement and consolidate channels that encourage citizen participation in the management of public security in the State of Tocantins, leaving aside a traditionalist repressive model, giving way to management guided by citizenship and materializing social peace.