THE LEGAL LIMITS OF THE USE OF POLICE FORCE IN BRAZIL: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON THE FILM ELITE SQUAD

Abstract

This article delves into the relationship between Brazil’s public security and fundamental guarantees, paying special attention to the limits that the Law places on the use of police force. The intent is to discover whether the conduct of the teams portrayed in Elite Squad withstands the scrutiny of legality, placing the scenes in direct confrontation with the provisions of the Torture Law (Law No. 9,455/1997) and the Abuse of Authority Law (Law No. 13,869/2019). The methodological path was qualitative and exploratory, structured on the deductive method supported by a bibliographic and documentary base. By utilizing legal hermeneutics applied to cinema, the narrative ceased to be mere entertainment to serve as a basis for analyzing real social phenomena. The findings point to an evident mismatch between legal theory and daily operations, where State action in critical areas ends up sliding into scenarios of exception. It is clear that interrogation methods and home invasions displayed in the work ignore the proportionality limits of Interministerial Ordinance No. 4,226/2010. This dynamic signals the influence of logics such as Necropolitics and Enemy Criminal Law. Finally, it is noted that aligning duty with the norm requires both stricter external control and training that prioritizes human dignity.