Federal Police of Brazil

The Federal Police of Brazil (Portuguese: Polícia Federal do Brasil) or Department of Federal Police (Portuguese: Departamento de Polícia Federal) is a federal law enforcement agency of Brazil and one of the most well-known nationwide police forces of the Executive Power of Brazil. Besides with Federal Highway Police and Polícia Penal Federal (Federal Prisons Police) and the Polices from the Capital, Brasília, Federal District, which is also organized and maintained from the Federal government. In addition Brazil has more federals Polices from another powers, like the Institutional Polices from the Congress (Polícia Legislativa Federal), Federal Prosecutor’s Office Police (Polícia do MPU) and Judicial Police of the Federal Judiciary. From 1944 to 1967 it was called the Federal Public Safety Department (Portuguese: Departamento Federal de Segurança Pública).

The Federal Police Department is responsible for combating crimes against federal institutions, international drug trafficking, terrorism, cyber-crime, organized crime, public corruption, white-collar crime, money laundering, immigration, border control, airport security and maritime policing. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

The DPF's mandate was established in the first paragraph of the Article 144 of the Brazilian Constitution, which assigns it the following roles:

Other federal statutes give the Federal Police the authority and responsibility to:

On 28 March 1944, the Police Department of the Federal District in Rio de Janeiro was transformed into the "Departamento Federal de Segurança Pública" (Federal Department of Public Safety), or DFSP. The aim was to create a police with jurisdiction in the whole country, not just in its original state. Despite its name change, initially the DFSP only served in the Federal District, but acted at the national level as the maritime police.

In the first half of 1946, the DFSP was given national jurisdiction, especially in cases of the illegal narcotics trade and crimes against public faith, and in the interest of national finance. However, a new constitution drafted on September 18 gave states the power to meet their needs of government and administration.

When the federal capital moved in 1960, the DFSP moved to Brasília, providing Guanabara State with their public security services and personnel. Due to a shortage of staff, the DFSP had to be restructured, merging its staff with another local security agency from Brasilia, called the Special Guard of Brasilia (GEB). Afterwards, the DFSP improved its structure to mimic the model of the United States FBI and police forces in England and Canada, as well as to expand operations throughout the whole Brazilian territory. Also in 1967, the new Brazilian Constitution changed the agency name to Departamento de Policia Federal (Department of Federal Police) through art.210 of Decree-Law No. 200 of February 25, 1967. As a federal investigation agency, the idea after the 1960s was to mold the Federal Police into the shape and effectiveness of the American FBI. In 1996, all positions in the Federal Police came to require a bachelor's degree.

With an area of expertise that covers all national territory, the Federal Police adopts a structure similar to that of the state Civil Police forces throughout the country, but with an administrative structure that allows planning, coordination and centralized control with decentralized execution. Integration with the other federal and state government agencies on a routine basis occur through formal requests, but eventually there is a high level of coordination. The Director-General provides accounting and technical support agencies in Brasília, entrusted with the tasks of planning, coordination and control.