Invisíveis vigiados : o indivíduo em situação de rua e as forças públicas de segurança em tempos de COVID-19

Abstract

The homeless represent a global human rights crisis, which requires an urgente response, given this population's vulnerability, heterogeneity, and progressive growth. In critical contexts, like pandemic of the new coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2), causer of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), that is overwhelming the world since the end of 2019, the vulnerability of the homeless increased. Therefore, the objective of the dissertation was to analyze the elements that characterize the perception of public security forces, street-level bureaucrats, about their professional performance, and the contact they established with the homeless population, especially during the pandemic. The dissertation's theoretical foundations were centered on the literature on the homeless, the role of public security forces from the perspective of street-level bureaucracy, and the COVID-19 context. The methodological procedures for investigated the phenomenon were descriptive qualitative research based on a study of multiple cases in Belo Horizonte (the capital of Minas Gerais, in Brazil). Data were collected through the literature review, the documentary research on police occurrence data, the application of semi-structured interviews with 16 agents of the public security forces, eight linked to the Municipal Civil Guard of Belo Horizonte and eight linked to the Military Police of Minas Gerais, the knowledge of two qualified informants, and the non -participant observation strategy. The interpretation and analysis of data were based on content analysis. The main findings of the research confirm the discretion as a core inherent in the action of public security forces with homeless persons, with partisan and stigmatizing bias, with the dimension of the urban context being decisive for this acting. The study also reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic, by imposing coexistence with an unknown and invisible enemy, initially aroused a relative fear and tension in public security agents in their daily work. Subsequently, due to the perpetuation of the pandemic, security agents began to assimilate and accommodate themselves to the context, which was evidenced by the flexibility on the new coronavirus prevention and confrontation. The study concluded that the work of street level bureaucrats and their perceptions are translated into the practice of eminently traditional policing, mainly when aimed at the homeless population. Consequently, it is urgent and necessary to design and build a democratic and citizen-focused police action, through technical training of security agents in a continuous manner, based on human rights principles, to deal with citizens, especially the most vulnerable. At the theoretical level, the dissertation verified a gap in the literature concerning studies that addressed specifically the homeless and the street-level bureaucracy simultaneously. Among the empirical and applied contributions, the relevance of this analysis for public policy managers and public security organizations stands out given the demonstration that agents' interactions with each other and with other citizens affect the practice and results of public policy designed. From a social point of view, the study revealed the construction of social processes of criminalization, selectivity, and discrimination concerning the homeless population by agents of public security forces, with repercussions for the maintenance or expansion of social inequalities. In order to foster a research agenda that deepens the theme in the approach adopted here, it was suggested that future research study the implications of the dimensions of training of public security agents in the relationship with the population, whether in regular times or of crisis. Finally, the dissertation recommended developing studies that articulate street-level bureaucracy and the relationship of these agents with groups in vulnerable situations because that topic is still a gap in the academic field.