‘To Complicate', ‘To Complicate Itself' and ‘To Decomplicate': Punishments and Accounts in Police and Population Relations

Abstract

The article discusses the police mandate in the context of patrol performed by police officers in Ceará, Brazil. I analyze the discretionary applications of the law on career building of the military policemen and their performance in patrolling the streets. The methodological approach of the study is qualitative: techniques such as direct observation, conversations and semi-structured interviews of the episodic type were used. The study lasted three years in the period from 2011 to 2013. The article examines the ways in which the police carry out their work based on local specificities and how residents trigger the police in their daily lives.