From the analysis of a range of empirical evidence and available data, this article seeks to build a current overview of the field and, thereby, to strengthen a narrative about the present configuration of public safety in the country that identifies the senses of strong disputes surrounding the meanings of law, order and public safety and that interprets the directions and institutional options around how the State has managed the social conflicts of the contemporary Brazilian society. This narrative, in summary, argues that there is a strong gap between the democratic principles inaugurated with the 1988 Constitution and the institutional practices of the police, the prosecutors and the judiciary, which, paradoxically, delegate to the military police the management of the life of the population and little advance in its recognition as a general principle to organize their practices and procedures.
public safety; public order; military police; social conflicts; democracy
