The governor of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro should veto provisions in a new bill that would give civil police an economic incentive to kill suspects and would weaken forensic analysis, Human Rights Watch said today.
On September 24, the state legislature approved bill 6027/2025, which makes structural changes to the civil police, the state force tasked with investigating crimes. Governor Cláudio Castro can veto it in part or in full.
"Giving bonuses to police for killings is not only outright brutal but also undermines public security by creating a financial incentive for officers to shoot rather than arrest suspects," said César Muñoz, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. "A strategy that promotes shootouts endangers the health and lives of suspects, bystanders, and police officers themselves, while doing nothing to actually dismantle criminal organizations."
In 2024, Rio de Janeiro military police - the state force that patrols the streets - and civil police killed 703 people, almost 2 per day, official data show. They killed another 470 from January through August 2025.
Of those killed in 2024, 86 percent were Black, a percentage much higher than their share of the population in Rio de Janeiro, which is 58 percent. If enacted, the bonus would likely exacerbate the already disproportionate, deadly impact on Brazilians of African descent living in low-income neighborhoods, Human Rights Watch said.
Under the bill, officers could be paid up to 150 percent of their salaries when they "neutralize criminals." Alexandre Knoploch, one of the state representatives who introduced the provision, clarified during a debate at the state assembly and to the press that "neutralize" means "kill."
Federal prosecutors urged the governor to veto the bonus, arguing it violated international and domestic law, including an April ruling by the Supreme Court that ordered Rio de Janeiro to take measures to reduce police killings.
A similar monetary award, dubbed the "Wild West bonus," was established in 1995 in the state of Rio de Janeiro and paid to civil police and military police. Police killings doubled the following year.
The Rio state assembly ended the program in 1998 after a study analyzing approximately 1,200 autopsies over three years found that police had shot 65 percent of these people in the back, apparently as they fled. Several officers responsible for those killings were not only not held accountable but promoted for "bravery."
Human Rights Watch has documented how police abuse and the resultant breaking of trust has undermined public security in Rio de Janeiro. Mistrust makes communities less willing to collaborate in criminal investigations and fuels a cycle of violence that puts both civilians and police officers at risk.
The new bill also establishes a bonus for apprehension of large caliber weapons or those restricted to military and law enforcement use. In the last decade, Human Rights Watch interviewed military police officers in Rio de Janeiro who admitted that the interest in seizing weapons was an incentive to kill armed suspects in ambushes or when they were fleeing.
Instead of those bonuses, authorities should reward civil police officers for their contributions to what should be the mission of the civil police, namely, protecting the rights of the population and solving crimes, Human Rights Watch said.
The bill also weakens the autonomy of forensic analysis, which is a key element of criminal investigations. The legislation grants the anti-bomb squad of the civil police elite unit, known as CORE, the "exclusive" responsibility to conduct forensic analysis of explosives or incendiary artifacts, even though CORE officers are not forensic experts. Furthermore, CORE officers would carry out forensic analysis even in cases of killings by CORE officers in which there is an allegation that one such artifact was involved.
In addition, the bill expands the role of fingerprint experts, who are subordinated to civil police chief investigators, known as delegados, and are not part of the forensic analysis department. Unlike other forensic experts, fingerprint experts lack any autonomy and can be more easily influenced or pressured to reach certain findings by delegados, several Rio de Janeiro forensic experts told Human Rights Watch. The bill gives fingerprint experts the capacity to direct any forensic service, labs, and databases, as well as evidence storage facilities.
That expansion of fingerprint experts' role runs counter to Brazilian federal law, which states that forensic experts should enjoy "technical, scientific and functional autonomy." In the April Supreme Court ruling mentioned above, the court reaffirmed the need for forensic autonomy.
Forensic services should be independent to ensure they are based solely on science to prevent conflict of interest or bias, to preserve the credibility of the findings in court, and to avoid judicial errors. Such independence is particularly important when forensic experts need to elucidate the circumstances of a police killing.
On September 30, the Rio legislature passed another bill, 39/2025, that maintained the subordination of forensic services to delegados. It does not reserve any position for forensic experts in the ten-member Superior Council of Police, a key advisory body. It also allows delegados to direct the forensic services. Forensic experts had called on the legislature to require that they be led by a forensic expert.
"High-quality, independent forensic services are essential for bringing those responsible for crimes to justice," Muñoz said. "Rio Governor Cláudio Castro should veto the provisions in the bill that weaken those services and instead introduce a new bill ensuring forensic experts' independence from the civil police."
