Bahia’s Public Security Secretariat did not say which cities the police officers were removed from to reinforce the fight against factions in the capital of Bahia

The interior of Bahia saw its police force weakened in the fight against crime, this Tuesday (22), after 120 Military Police officers were transferred to work in Salvador. With the transfer of police officers, mayors and residents fear the impact that the measure could have on local security.

Current manager of Feira de Santana, the second largest city in the state, Colbert Martins states that the measure is surprising and indicates that crime is beyond the control of the Public Security Secretariat (SSP). “Salvador has four million inhabitants. Eleven million people live in the interior of the state. These police officers were trained to work in Caatinga environments, not in beach areas. You embezzle the interior, while organized crime, which did not remove anyone from the interior, it is probably getting stronger”, he declares.

The mayor also mentioned the Angerona operationheld at the Feira de Santana Penal Complex. According to him, the action coordinated by the Secretariat of Penitentiary Administration and Resocialization (Seap), which carried out a sweep of the cells, highlights the unpreparedness of the department. “If the State has lost control over prisoners, how can it guarantee the safety of citizens who travel around the city every day?”, he asks.

Violence in Feira de Santana has always been worrying, but it has increasingly increased with the presence of factions. This is what Abner Machado, resident of the Cidade Nova neighborhood, points out. According to him, the city has become a refuge for criminals who are fleeing the authorities in Salvador, and the measure will only worsen this situation. “It will definitely get more complicated for us here, although the capital has greater demand. If they take away what little we have, the tendency will be to worsen what is already not good”, reveals the software developer.

Born and raised in Alagoinhas, a city 122 km from the capital of Bahia, history teacher Moisés Morais, 44, fears for the safety of his municipality. “Alagoinhas has become violent in the last two decades. In the past you could walk around the city calmly. You can even notice it in the city’s architecture: Gated communities, security cameras, closed houses. These things practically didn’t exist before”, says the neighborhood resident from Alagoinhas Velha.

The SSP was approached to comment on the measure and inform which interior cities the PMs came from. CORREIO did not receive a response until the closing of this edition.

*under the guidance of editor Rodrigo Daniel Silva