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Elite Police: the construction of the institutional image of the Federal Police in Brazil and positioning in the field of symbolic disputes
Sat, September 14, 8:00 to 9:15am, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, Floor: Ground floor, Petre Antonescu Room (1.30)Abstract
The positioning of police institutions can represent strategies in the different fields of power within the State. Thus, communication is one of the tools used to increase police legitimacy, with the intention of reinforcing its symbolic power. The Federal Police (PF) in Brazil is the investigative police institution responsible for investigating federal crimes, such as embezzlement of public resources and international drug trafficking, similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States. Recently, the mega operations against corruption carried out by the Federal Police have gained prominence, such as the Lava Jato operation, in parallel with the relevant growth of its institutional capacity. This study investigates the construction of institutional image by the Federal Police, as a strategy in disputes for power within the State. How is the institutional image of the Federal Police constructed by the institution itself? If a communication strategy exists and is coordinated, in what sense does this image construction occur? Documents made available by the institution on its official channels were analyzed, such as annual management reports, documents on institutional communication guidelines, social media content and news published on the organization's official website from 2011 onwards. It was found that the communication strategy is plural, aimed at different audiences, in documents, website and social media, depending on institutional characteristics and demands. Furthermore, the communication strategy occurs differently in order to increase symbolic power in the different fields in which the PF can act, specifically, the field of public security and the field of criminal justice, as well as possibly a transnational field of policing.