Understanding Public Security in Brazil: Crisis or Bad Management?

Speaker: Professor Jose Helano Matos Nogueira, Visiting Researcher, Brazil Institute

Security improvement plays an important role in public and social policies in all countries and forces governments to improve public security services. Many Brazilian cities have high rates of violence and with these, has come the advance and consolidation of organised crime in spaces long-neglected by the government, leading to severe public security issues.

Beyond this fact, some 'wicked', not only difficult or complex, problems have arisen that challenges governance mechanisms in Brazil, such as high criminality, overcrowding in prisons, penitentiary system precarity, and a lack of resources in public security. Therefore, it is essential to carry out a phenomenological study with theoretical rigour and practical relevance in order to better understand public security in Brazil.

This seminar will reveal and critically discuss important themes relating to public security in Brazil, such as:

• concepts and definitions
• duties and responsibilities
• public security structure
• wicked problems
• solutions
• answers to the question: crisis or bad management?

Professor Dr JOSE HELANO MATOS NOGUEIRA is a police officer at the Brazilian Federal Police and has three postgraduate degrees: Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Liverpool; Master of Business Administration from the National Police Academy in Brazil; Master of Science in Computer Science at PUC University/Brazil.

Currently, Dr Helano is an academic visitor at King's College London, a recognised teacher and supervisor at the University of Liverpool, and a professor at Farias Brito University in Brazil. He has 25 years' teaching and research experience on business administration and information technology in several universities and has supervised dozens of postgraduate students (doctorate and master's) in the field of business administration and computer science during the preparation of their theses, dissertations and projects. As a researcher, he has more than 80 scientific publications, including peer-reviewed articles and books.

He has professional experience in crisis management, disaster management, international business, global leadership, strategic management, and IT management, having been a Senior Manager at the Olympic Games, International Police Cooperation Coordinator at the FIFA World Cup, Police Forensics Director at INTERPOL, and Head of Forensics Department at the Brazilian Federal Police.