BROADCASTS.com

Brazil\u2019s party capital, Rio de Janeiro, is witnessing a killing spree. Nothing new there, you might think \u2013 it\u2019s long suffered from violent crime. Yet in this case, it\u2019s the police who stand accused of perpetrating much of the bloodshed. The city\u2019s impoverished informal townships - known as favelas - are home to criminal gangs with whom security forces are doing battle on a daily basis, using armoured vehicles, high velocity firearms and even helicopter gunships. This year an average of five people have lost their lives every single day. Many of the dead are not even lawbreakers, but entirely innocent civilians. For Assignment, Hugo Bachega enters Rio\u2019s favelas to meet those who believe the authorities are complicit in extra-judicial assassinations. But as he discovers, the police themselves are both afraid and ill-equipped for their task, while investigatory authorities freely admit that they are incapable of properly investigating suspected illegal killings. What\u2019s more, plenty of people outside the favelas approve of the hardline police tactics, and sympathy for victims is qualified by the pervading fear of crime.

Reporter, Hugo Bachega \nProducer, Michael Gallagher

Image: A military policeman takes part in an operation at Cidade de Deus favela in Rio de Janeiro \nCredit: MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP/Getty Images