The territory belongs to us, not to crime.
DF recorded 5.28 homicides per 100k inhabitants, lowest among Brazilian states, with zero unsolved cases according to officials. Security chief credits integrated approach across police, fire, and penitentiary services for territorial control and crime prevention.
- DF recorded 5.28 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in Q1 2026
- Zero unsolved homicide cases reported by security officials
- Surpassed Santa Catarina (5.49 per 100k) to rank first among Brazilian states
- Meeting included commanders of military police, civil police, fire department, transit authority, and penitentiary system
Brasília's security secretary announces the Federal District achieved Brazil's lowest homicide rate (5.28 per 100k) in Q1 2026, surpassing Santa Catarina, attributing success to integrated state security operations.
On Thursday afternoon, Alexandre Patury sat down with the heads of every major security agency in Brazil's capital—the military police commander, the civil police chief, the fire department leader, the transit authority president, and the penitentiary secretary. When they finished, Patury had a statement to make. The Federal District, he announced, now ranked first among all Brazilian states for the lowest homicide rate. The number was 5.28 deaths per 100,000 residents in the first quarter of 2026. More striking still: zero unsolved cases. "Here the state is strong and integrated," Patury said. "There is no abandoned territory for crime to claim. The territory belongs to us."
The claim rested on data pulled from the National Public Security Information System, the federal database maintained by the Justice and Security Ministry. By that measure, Brasília had edged past Santa Catarina, which recorded 5.49 deaths per 100,000 residents. Three months earlier, the Federal District had held second place. Now it stood at the top.
Patury emphasized a detail that separated the ranking from mere statistical positioning: the zero unsolved cases. In his telling, this was not a matter of incomplete reporting or cases still under investigation. "We know the name and surname of each case," he said. The implication was clear—nothing was hidden, nothing was lost in bureaucratic limbo. Every death had been accounted for, every perpetrator identified or the circumstances fully understood.
The security secretary attributed this standing to the integrated structure of the capital's law enforcement apparatus. The military police, civil police, fire department, traffic authority, and penitentiary system were not operating in silos but as a coordinated whole. That coordination, in his view, had eliminated the gaps where crime typically took root. There were no blind spots, no jurisdictional dead zones where criminals could operate with impunity.
The announcement came as the result of a formal meeting with the leadership of each agency—Rômulo Flávio Mendonça Palhares commanding the military police, José Werick heading the civil police, Moisés Alves Barcelos leading the fire department, Marcu Antônio de Souza Bellini running the transit authority, and Wanderson Souza e Teles overseeing the penitentiary system. These were not casual conversations but structured gatherings of the security establishment, suggesting the ranking was being treated as a significant institutional achievement.
What remained unspoken in Patury's remarks was how this standing would be sustained, or whether the metrics themselves—homicide rate and case resolution—captured the full picture of public safety in a city of nearly three million people. The ranking was real by the numbers it cited. Whether those numbers told the complete story of security in Brasília was a question the announcement did not address.
Citas Notables
Here the state is strong and integrated. There is no abandoned territory for crime to claim. The territory belongs to us.— Alexandre Patury, Security Secretary of the Federal District
We know the name and surname of each case. We were in second place in the first quarter, and now we have reached first place.— Alexandre Patury
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
When a security chief says zero unsolved cases, what does that actually mean on the ground?
It means they're claiming complete clarity on every death—either they know who did it, or they've determined the circumstances fully. It's a strong claim, and it's meant to signal control.
But doesn't that seem almost impossible in a city of three million people?
It does. Which is why the emphasis on integration matters to them—they're saying the different agencies aren't working around each other, they're working as one system. That's the theory behind the number.
Is this ranking something that would actually change how people feel safer?
That depends on whether people experience the coordination Patury is describing. A statistic in a press release is one thing. Whether a neighborhood actually feels more secure is another.
So what's the real story here—the numbers, or the claim about integration?
Both. The numbers are real and they matter. But the claim about integration is what Patury is really selling. He's saying the structure itself is the achievement.