Modernization and Efficiency in the Exchange of Criminal Information between the Federal Justice and the Federal Police

In 2006, I identified a critical inefficiency in the exchange of criminal information between the Federal Police and the Federal Justice system in Brazil. Previously, communication relied on the manual and slow exchange of official documents (letters). This process resulted in significant delays for magistrates who needed criminal records for urgent decisions and led to poor data quality, as judicial information was often incorrectly summarized or lost during transfer to the police database, the National Criminal Information System (SINIC).

To solve this issue, I created a pilot project to establish a direct and secure electronic connection between the two institutions. The work on the project involved coordinating the technical and procedural changes needed to grant, for the first time, Federal Justice employees direct access to the National Criminal Information System (SINIC). This measure allowed magistrates to conduct criminal record checks in real time and allowed court employees to enter judicial decisions directly into the national database.

The initiative successfully eliminated information bottlenecks, dramatically improved the quality and completeness of national criminal data, and enabled the recording of criminal proceedings that did not originate in the police system, closing a significant information gap.

The result of the project was the signing of a Technical Cooperation Agreement in August 2007 between the Superior Court of Justice, the Federal Justice Council, the Federal Regional Courts and the Federal Police Department (available for download). The agreement formalized the electronic exchange of information for the prevention of crime in Brazil, eliminating the need for interested parties to send letters for communication between the two bodies regarding criminal information.