Corpo de Polícia da Província do Piauí: o policial, a instituição e as relações de poder no Piauí (1865-1880)

Abstract

This work presents the results produced regarding the Doctoral Project “Police Corps of the Province of Piauí: the police officer, the institution and power relations (1865-1880)”. The research was developed in the Postgraduate Program in History, under the research line “Border, politics and society” and revolved around the following research problem: what was the configuration of the Police Corps in Piauí between 1865 and 1880? Thus, the objective was to analyze the configuration of the Police Corps in relation to the relations between local and central power in a context strongly impacted by the effects caused by the Paraguayan War (1864-1870) in the second half of the 19th century. In this way, their relations with other coercive forces of the Empire, the uses and tensions in the formation of the institution and of the police were considered. The time frame is justified because in 1865, in Piauí, a Police Corps was created to replace the one that was in the Paraguayan War. It was an organized and disciplined force along the lines of the previous one, which had the same regulations established in 1852. The continuity of the political system maintained, in general, the organization of the institution in the Province. The changes did not bring any major interference in relations between the central and provincial government and in 1880, there was news of the last approved regulation and there was harmony in the management of the Police Corps with the Legislative Assembly of the Province, which regulated personnel, and the President of the Province, who took care of command and distribution. In this long process, it took the form of a Police Corps, which coexisted with other institutions in the policing, garrison and diligence services. Thus, he established an identity in light of the desires of the government he served. The sources used are: bibliographical, laws, reports from provincial and Empire authorities, Police Corps communication books, personnel record books, police station requirements, correspondence and others. This type of story narrates part of the administrative life of the State, as its particularity is official sources. However, the practice of individuals recorded in requests or communications to commanders humanizes and gives balance to the study. The history of the Piauí Police Corps is narrated from sources that mark the flow between political relations, the institution and the police officers. The text is organized into six parts: introduction, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and final considerations. In the introduction, the theme, problem, justification, state of the issue, theoretical-methodological references and sources are discussed. Then, we present chapter 1 “Piauí, power relations, effects of the Paraguayan War (1865-1870)”, chapter 2 “Institutional borders between the Provincial Police Corps, national guard and the Line Force in Piauí” , chapter 3 “The uses of the Piauí Police Corps”, chapter 4 “The configuration of the personnel profile of the Police Corps of the Province of Piauí (1865-1881)” and the final considerations.