Police education in late modernity: Dilemmas and prospects

The Western societies have experienced diffused processes by which, on the one hand, institutionalize democratic political systems, with the expansion of several individual and social rights. On the other hand, they have experienced the development of destabilization processes concerning the social control, based on phenomena such as the development of forms of violence and crime. This ambivalence has been characterized by the concept of late modernity. In this context, the police role, an institution that emerged related to the expansion of State power, is to keep the order, ensure safety of cities and fight against forms of delinquency, but this has been a focus of criticism, especially regarding the issue of the use of force. The classical model of education, given to the policemen, especially the military police, becomes a frequent target of analyses that proclaim the necessity to establish a new professional profile. A model that assists the police authorities to overcome the militarized, hierarchical patterns, which are associated to a combative attitude and focused on crime. Nevertheless, the training of police has passed on a recurring basis, inside the police companies, characterized by the existence of disciplinary standards of conduction that maintains a conformation-specific education, training and consolidating very different mechanisms from those recommended by the critics. This mixing of elements that run through the training processes for police officers (Brazilian and Paraguayan) forms a field of knowledge/power that surrounds the difficulties lived by the policemen concerning their training.