Front and back public safety

Abstract

She is an economist — with a bachelor's, master's and doctorate degree in the field — but became a specialist in research on the impacts of security policies, crime analysis and the structure of violent criminal groups. Joana da Costa Martins Monteiro is a professor at the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (Ebape) at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and coordinator of the Center for Science Applied to Security (CCAS) at FGV. Having served as director-president of the Public Security Institute (ISP) of Rio de Janeiro from 2015 to 2018 and as coordinator of the Research Center of the Public Ministry of the same state in 2019 and 2020, Joana Monteiro has a privileged view on the serious problems of security in Rio de Janeiro and even in Brazil. “If there's anything I learned in government, it's that without leadership there's nothing others can do. If she's neutral, maybe we can do it. If she doesn’t want to, there’s no way,” she says. Holder of vast academic experience, working as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago (2023) and as a visiting researcher at the universities of Columbia (2021-2022) and Harvard (2009-2012), Joana Monteiro says she is impressed by the lack of training in the Rio de Janeiro police officer. When telling behind-the-scenes scenes of public management, she does not make simple anecdotes, but shows in a practical way some of the challenges faced by governments in this very thorny area. The interview, conducted by the organizers of the dossier “Public security: behavior of political and social actors in the formulation and implementation of public policies” (Patricia Burlamaqui and Tânia Pinc), was given virtually, via the Zoom platform, on September 6, 2023. Check it out.