SalvadorPolice killed 1,570 people in Bahia last year.
The Brazilian Public Security Yearbook ranks Bahia first in Brazil, nearly double São Paulo’s 835.
A 2019 rule let detectives probe police killings only on prosecutors’ or security chiefs’ orders, and deaths rose 47% by 2020.
Criminal factions have also expanded in Bahia and are often cited to justify aggressive operations in communities.
Officers from the 37th Military Police Company shot Curuzu leader Ivonei de Assis da Cruz, 42, on 1 August 2025.
How each outlet framed it
- Agência Pública leans critical
- traces one killing through a family member's memory of the victim, a producer and bloc president, to show the Bahia police death toll (1,570) as lived grief
Sources: Agência Pública