The Pacto Pelotas pela Paz (Pact for Peace of the City of Pelotas) was an initiative of the Pelotas City Government, a city located in the extreme south of Brazil, involving all security forces, criminal justice institutions, municipal departments and civil society leaders, with technical assistance from the Instituto Cidade Segura..
To address the increase in violence, the city developed, in 2017, a plan focused on five priority problems: homicides, pedestrian robberies, child and youth vulnerability, and public disorder. To impact these problems, programs that had already proven effective nationally and internationally were selected, such as parent training, development of social and emotional skills in early childhood education, early identification of young people at risk, hot spot policing, broken windows policing using problem-solving techniques and through citywide enforcement, and focused deterrence.
Focused deterrence was the strategy selected to reduce homicides and has been implemented since May 2018 in an integrated manner by the Judiciary, Civil Police, and Military Police. The three institutions created an integrated intelligence center and the leaders of the three main criminal factions in the city were notified that they would receive administrative sanctions if homicides continued to occur in the city.
During the implementation of the intervention, some leaders were sent to prisons in other cities and, at times, had their benefits suspended due to the homicides. In addition, the Civil Police conducted anti-money laundering operations and the Military Police carried out ad hoc operations in specific areas when homicides occurred.
Actors in the areas of inspection, police, and justice meet monthly to analyze crime indicators and monitor the progress of projects in the Integrated Municipal Security Cabinet, while actors in the area of prevention meet to monitor prevention indicators and key projects in the Integrated Prevention Committee. The city has created a Municipal Safety Observatory that collects and analyzes indicators and an Executive Secretariat of the Pact, which monitors programs.