Police inquiry (Brazil)
Open-knowledge reference entry
The police inquiry in Brazil is an administrative police procedure created by imperial decree 4.824/1871 and provided for in the Brazilian Code of Criminal Procedure as a fundamental investigative procedure of the Brazilian judicial police (Brazil). It investigates (examines) a certain crime and precedes the criminal action, being commonly considered as pre-procedural, although it is part of the criminal process. The police inquiry is a written procedure presided over by the police authority, who is the police delegate. It consists of evidence of the authorship and materiality of the crime, which are commonly produced by the police authority and by the agents of the police authority (police investigators, criminal experts, police officers, police clerks, police papillary experts).
Definition
The police inquiry is the procedure of judicial police aimed at establishing the real truth of an allegedly criminal fact. Its purpose is to gather the necessary elements (evidence) to investigate the commission of a criminal offense and its authorship (authorship and materiality). Provided for in articles 4 to 23 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is the formal instrument of investigations, comprising a set of diligences carried out by agents of the police authority and by the police authority itself (police delegates) to investigate the criminal act and discover its authorship or the atypicality or any cause excluding unlawfulness or culpability. In summary, it is the documentation of the diligences performed by the judicial police, arranged chronologically and filed with the records that document the investigations.
Once the police inquiry is initiated, it is the duty of the police authority to take certain measures capable of investigating the criminal offense. According to the subparagraphs of Article 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, these measures are as follows:
go to the scene, taking steps to preserve the state and condition of things until the arrival of the criminal experts;
seize the objects related to the fact, after they have been released by the criminal experts;
gather all the evidence that serves to clarify the fact and its circumstances;
hear the victim;
hear the accused, observing, where applicable, the provisions of Chapter III of Title VII of this Book, with the respective record being signed by two witnesses who have heard it being read;
conduct identification lineups and confrontations;
determine, if necessary, the carrying out of a body examination and any other expert examination;
order the identification of the accused through dactyloscopy, if possible, and attach to the records their background sheet;
investigate the previous life of the accused, from an individual, family and social point of view, their economic condition, their attitude and state of mind before and after the crime and during it, and any other elements that contribute to the assessment of their temperament and character.
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