Polícia em tempos de guerra: o corpo de polícia provisório de Pernambuco (1864 – 1870)

Abstract

This article deals with the Police, which in practice was and continues to be the most tangible state institution for a large part of the population, since it is through their action that many citizens have contact with the public power, reinforcing the assumption that the State has brute force as a mechanism of power. In Pernambuco, throughout the nineteenth century, the Police Corps varied in its organization, contingent and distribution of detachments throughout the various regions of the province. But in the period from 1864 to 1870, this variation gained an extra component: the outbreak of the Paraguayan War. In 1865, with the beginning of the war, there was a need for a military reorganizationaimed at moving troops to the front - a situation that also involved the Police Corps. As a portion of its staff volunteered to participate in the war effort, the provincial government had to create a provisional public force to continue the police service in Pernambuco. Counting on the documentary contribution of the annals of the Provincial Legislative Assembly and the collection of provincial laws, under the custody of the Arquivo Estadual Jordão Emerenciano (APEJE), this article aims precisely to analyze how the Police Corps was organized in the early years of the aforementioned war in an attempt to understand its relations with the State and society in the period in question.