Brazil & Southern Cone - November 2025
Human rights concerns raised over bill to reward police killings
A bill passed by the Rio de Janeiro state legislative assembly (Alerj) in September, which proposed offering a bonus to policemen for the ‘neutralisation’ of criminals, has sparked human rights concerns. Although the state governor, Cláudio Castro, ultimately vetoed key sections of the bill, the fact that the bill managed to pass the state legislature raised alarm bells among legal experts who were concerned over the possible return of the policy from the 1990s which gave Rio’s police economic incentives to suppress crime by force.
The bill, officially registered as PL 6027/2025, was approved on 23 September. The primary aim of the legislation was to update the roles and staffing structure of Rio de Janeiro’s state law enforcement bodies. However, during its passage through Alerj, a controversial amendment was added: a new provision to offer police officers a bonus for neutralising suspected criminals. This additional payment could have ranged from 10%-150% of a policeman’s salary.
The amendment was tabled by state legislators who are part of the governor’s political base. Castro is a member of the right-wing Partido Liberal (PL), the party of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023). The proposal for the so-called Wild West bonus was put forward by three right-wing state deputies – Alan Lopes and Alexandre Knoploch, both affiliated with the PL, and Marcelo Dino, a member of the conservative União Brasil party, which is allied with the PL in Alerj.
The Brazilian branch of international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement on 2 October to criticise the passage of the bill. HRW and other human rights groups refer to the proposed bonus as a ‘gratificação faroeste’ (Wild West reward). The NGO highlighted that a policy like this was in place in Rio de Janeiro from 1995-1998. However, Alerj ended the neutralisation bonus for state police in 1998 after a report released that year showed that 65% of roughly 1,200 autopsies conducted from 1995-1998 showed signs of victims being shot in the back, possibly while trying to flee from police. HRW also warned that a bill that incentivises the killing of suspected criminals would have “exacerbated the disproportional impact” of police violence on black Brazilians living in lower-income communities.
- Disproportionate racial impact
In its 2 October statement in which it criticised the Wild West bonus, Human Rights Watch Brasil highlighted that the military and civil police forces of Rio de Janeiro state killed 703 people in 2024, 86% of whom were black. This proportion of black people killed by police is significantly higher than the total proportion of people in the state of Rio who identify as black, which is 58%.
The federal public defender’s office (DPU) sent an official letter to the office of the Rio governor on 29 September which argued that PL 6027/2025 was unconstitutional and recommended that Castro veto the legislation. Shortly before he retired on 18 October, now-former supreme court (STF) justice Luís Roberto Barroso (2013-2025) also requested more information from the Rio state government about the bill, given the risk that the legislation could have contradicted an STF ruling from April this year which ordered the state of Rio de Janeiro to implement a plan to reduce the risk of police brutality in favelas [SSR-25-05].
It is unclear how much the pressure from human rights groups and judicial authorities influenced Castro’s decision, but on 23 October the Rio state government announced that the governor had vetoed the amendment of the bill that proposed the Wild West bonus. The announcement of the veto in the state government’s official gazette did not focus on the potential human rights or legal concerns regarding the bonus. Instead, it highlighted that the proposed plan to pay police officers a bonus could have strained public finances, possibly threatening the state government’s compliance with fiscal rules.