The city government of Pelotas (Brazil)—in partnership with Instituto Cidade Segura and with support from Comunitas and the Open Society Foundations—established their flagship public security program Pacto Pelotas pela Paz (Pelotas Pact for Peace – “the Pact” from here onward) in 2017. Currently, the Pact engages with a wide range of technical cooperation partnerships, including Peace in Our Cities. Based on the two fundamental pillars of evidence-based law enforcement and social services provision, the Pact aims to reduce urban violence and crime, promote a culture of peace, and address risks and vulnerabilities. The Pact contains five operational pillars: (1) prevention, (2) law enforcement and justice, (3) reduction of illicit markets, (4) urbanism, and (5) the use of technology and data (all discussed in more detail below).
An impact evaluation concluded that the Pelotas Pact for Peace demonstrates the “significant potential of a combined public health and criminal justice approach at the municipal level.” It concluded the Pact was responsible for a 9% reduction in the city’s homicide rate and 7% in robberies. Furthermore, the same impact evaluation found a 38% reduction in homicides could be directly associated with the “focused deterrence” intervention, underscoring the importance of following the evidence for effective deployment of law enforcement.