Atuação e formação profissional dos guardas municipais na proteção preventiva: um estudo de caso na cidade de Lauro de Freitas – BA

Abstract

The growth of violence and crime in Brazil has increased the Brazilian population's concern for public safety and demanded more action from the government, making it a major challenge for public managers to implement public policies to limit the advance of this phenomenon. The Municipal Guard has been a public policy implemented by municipalities to resolve this context, whose professional performance is influenced by the practices of two contradictory theoretical currents of "Municipal Police/Citizen Police" and "traditional professional training model" that end up creating insecurity in the professional performance of municipal guards. Influenced by this premise, an applied socially relevant study was carried out with the aim of understanding the professional performance of municipal guards in public security in the city of Lauro de Freitas, Bahia. The methodological approach was qualitative research through a case study, using semi-structured interviews with 18 municipal guards, 4 managers or those responsible for the portfolio and 5 community representatives, as well as document analysis and participant observation. There was insecurity in the professional performance of the municipal guards of Lauro de Freitas due to the need for continuous and effective professional training and capacity building in line with their professional community prevention identity, the inadequacy or non-existence of municipal legislation that establishes their functions, guided by the federal government, and the limited number of civil servants and lack of work structure. Based on this understanding, a synthesis of the competencies of municipal guards was proposed, based on legislation and interviews, which could help to create regulations, guidelines and strategies suited to the changes and particularities experienced by the professional performance of municipal guards, inspired by the practices of the theoretical current of Citizen Police.