Segurança pública & meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado : funções das guardas municipais no enfrentamento da crise ambiental e climática.

Abstract

Climate change resulting from human activities has become an increasingly serious threat to the planet's existence and an increasingly serious problem. Despite the efforts of several countries and partial progress in certain areas, effective action to address the problem is clearly insufficient given the scale and speed of climate change. This should be the number one priority. Therefore, a multi-sectoral effort is needed to address the issue. Cooperation between countries and, within countries, between different sectors of the state, community, and market is urgent. This paper addresses the potential contribution of a Brazilian public security agency—the municipal guards—to efforts to address climate change. Brazilian municipal guards have been gaining greater prominence in recent decades, with a visible expansion of their functions. There is the possibility of their transformation into municipal police forces through Constitutional Amendment Proposal No. 57/2023 ("Public Security PEC"). The research starts from the following problem: what functions are relevant to Municipal Guards in protecting the environment and facing extreme climate events, considering the Objective of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) No. 13 of the UN, the legislation of security public safety and successful community policing experiences? The general objective is to investigate the roles municipal guards can play in protecting the environment and addressing extreme weather events, considering SDG 13, public safety legislation, and successful community policing experiences. The approach adopted is deductive, based on general premises of the right to an ecologically balanced environment and communitarian assumptions about public policies, to support the proposal that municipal guards take on environmental protection tasks. The procedural method is monographic, through a detailed study of municipal guards, as entities with constitutional powers related to ecological protection and environmental education, as well as their relationships with the community, market, and third sector, within the logic of community policing. The research technique is bibliographic and documentary. The dissertation aligns with the research line of the Postgraduate Program in Law from the University of Santa Cruz do Sul, in Public Policies for Social Inclusion, as the Federal Constitution of 1988 provided for comprehensive social participation in public policies, including environmental ones, guaranteeing citizenship. The research results suggest that municipal guards, with their progressively expanding functions, potentially driven by the Public Security Constitutional Amendment (PEC), could contribute significantly to environmental protection if managed within the philosophy of community policing, joining forces with other sectors to implement public policies. This shared responsibility among municipal guards can occur both through surveillance, traffic control, and overt urban patrolling (combating crimes and environmental administrative infractions), as well as through conflict mediation, education, and environmental awareness, working in coordination with society, businesses, and the third sector, within the premises of community-based policing.