Military Police of São Paulo State


The Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo is a law enforcement agency of the military kind in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It is the largest state police force in the country, with over 100,000 personnel in its ranks, distributed across several battalions all over the state as well as within the Greater São Paulo region which itself comprises 40 cities and towns.
Despite being called "Military Police", it should not be confused with the Military Police for the Armed Forces, which are the Army Police , the Air Force Police and the Police Company of the Naval Battalion. Its role is rather more similar to the state defense forces and National Guard in the United States.
The first militarized police in Portugal was the Royal Police Guard of Lisbon, established in 1801, which followed the model of the National Gendarmerie of France, created in 1791.
In Brazil, State Military Police Officers are considered military personnel by the Brazilian constitution, however, they perform police duties among civilian populations. They are also reserve forces of the Brazilian Army.
Under the United Nations, in cooperation with the Brazilian Army, the Military Police of São Paulo State has served in Angola, Mozambique, East-Timor, Sudan, and Haiti.

Mission and organization

Its primary function is to perform the patrolling of public places such as city streets, state highways and forests in the entire state and also authority escorting, intelligence and reconnaissance and crime prevention duties. São Paulo Fire Fighters belongs to PMESP and are equally structured as a state police organization.
The PMESP is further divided into specialized units as follows:
The police force was founded by Brigadier General Rafael Tobias de Aguiar on December 15, 1831, originally as the São Paulo Municipal Imperial Guard. The MPSP of today was raised in 1935 as a result of its involvement in the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932.

Weapons

Pistols

ModelTypeNotesPhoto
Chevrolet CorsaPatrol car
Chevrolet ClassicPatrol car
Chevrolet SpinPatrol car
Chevrolet PrismaPatrol car/Road Traffic
Volkswagen GolPatrol car
BlazerResponse car
TrailBlazerResponse car
Fiat Palio WeekendPatrol carVehicle standard
Hilux SW4Response car
Mitsubishi L200Response car
Volkswagen SpaceFoxPatrol car
Volkswagen ParatiPatrol car
Volkswagen KombiPolice van
Volkswagen TruckPolice truck

Notable officers

, now a political representative, was a commanding officer behind the famous ROTA units in the 1970s and 1980s.
Cel. Ubiratan Guimarães, the commanding officer of the police operation resulting in the Carandiru massacre, was a high-ranked officer in the PMESP ranks.