This article is written by RĂ´mulo Fisch de BerrĂŞdo Menezes, Brazilian Federal Police Commissioner.

One year after gigantic street demonstrations against the central government of the time, Brazil successfully managed to hold the FIFA 2014 World Cup. Two years later, the challenge was to safely deliver the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Rio 2016, right after a hard time presidential impeachment process, in a very concrete scenario of terrorist threats. Hosting the Olympic Games safely requires the skilful collaboration of a long list of organisations, some of whom are more used to seeing each other as competitors than collaborators.

Among so many challenges, one of the biggest has been imposed on public security intelligence. I think the key lessons we learned from pulling this off applies to any public servant working across siloed government departments, and hearteningly, the key to making this work is surprisingly simple.

To be effective and efficient in our mission, it was necessary to overcome vanities, mistrust and institutional resistance, leading the process of overcoming differences in favour of a greater objective

Intelligence gathering

Intelligence, in the classic sense, is the production of knowledge.

Modern intelligence is more: it is knowledge management. In Rio 2016, that meant we had to identify, collect, produce, store, process, analyze, disseminate and protect data, information and knowledge aimed at public safety, to protect athletes, delegations and the public who were present at one of the most visible events in the world. That was our mission.

At the time, the public security intelligence for the Rio 2016 Games was directed by the Extraordinary Secretariat for Security of Major Events (SESGE), through its Intelligence Directorate, of which I was deputy director from 2015 to the middle of 2017. To be effective and efficient in our mission, it was necessary to overcome vanities, mistrust and institutional resistance, leading the process of overcoming differences in favour of a greater objective.

The greatest difficulty in Brazilian public security intelligence was dealing with the dilemma of (everyone's) desire to access other databases, without necessarily sharing their own. Knowledge is so vital that everyone wants to have it both their own and others.

Of all the institutional integration processes attempted over almost two decades in the country, knowledge sharing seems to me, without a doubt, the greatest barrier to be surpassed.

Getting everyone in one room

Our first task was to establish SESGE´s institutional legitimacy leading this process. Once that had been done, we started on the job of establishing a real partnership between actors with an endless list of subconscious grudges, which seemed like an impossible task.

But, oddly enough, the obvious solution — at least for the urgency of the moment — had not been put in place effectively.

At the FIFA 2014 World Cup we had already established integrated command and control centres, which, simply put, are physical structures designed to host people in charge of the coordination of operational efforts, to deal with specific predetermined goals. Our experience has been that actors (usually analysts assigned by their respective forces) who find themselves in the same room and who have close, daily contact are also likely to break the mutual suspicion that had been the norm before.

With everyone feeling part of the process, it was possible to create a constructive and harmonious environment, in which everyone was valued for their contributions

More than that, in the area of ​​public security intelligence, our leadership did not “demand” that existing security forces databases should be shared. On the contrary, we just asked that each actor, of each police agency, should be in a position to access their own sources of information so that, from them, they could jointly build knowledge capable of advising public security managers in charge of the most diverse actions described in operational plans.

With everyone feeling part of the process, it was possible to create a constructive and harmonious environment, in which everyone was valued for their contributions, regardless of the area to which they belonged. More than that, it was possible, in concrete terms, to show everyone that the knowledge generated from the joint work gave the respective managers a much broader and more complete view than that made by the “traditional method” derived from institutional compartmentalization.

The impact of the new methodologies implemented by SESGE in public security management (both in intelligence and in operational actions) could also be felt in all regions of the country during the Olympic Torch Relay, which took the “message” to 27 different states, in a “marathon” of 335 cities in 95 days, with our intelligence personnel standing restless — and happy — throughout the entire period.

A beacon for all public servants

The success of the experiment brought about real change and helped us overcome numerous institutional barriers. More than that, it has given countless managers the certainty that it is possible to work beyond institutional individuals, with effective practical results of great proportion.

Participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games is one of the most meaningful and memorable experiences for practically everyone involved

With so many lessons learned, it was clear to all of us who worked on the “intelligence side” at the Rio 2016 Games, that there is no other way for public security institutions to work effectively in their daily struggle to deliver better service to society: knowledge management at all levels, coordinated with respect to the different situational leaders, but capable of inducing effective integration between all public (and private) bodies, with a view to the good of all.

Participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games is one of the most meaningful and memorable experiences for practically everyone involved. Knowing that the safety of so many people depends to a large extent on our work and that the eyes of the world are on us, somehow raises our responsibility to the extreme of dedication. Cultivating and keeping lit the flame that provides sensations like this is the daily challenge for every public servant. — Rômulo Fisch de Berrêdo Menezes

Rômulo Berrêdo, M.Sc., is a 24+ experienced Brazilian Federal Police Commissioner. Former Intelligence Deputy Director at the Extraordinary Secretariat for Security of Major Events (SESGE) and former Intelligence General-Coordinator at Public Security National Secretariat. Currently working as Intelligence and Strategy Superintendent of the Public Security State Secretariat in Tocantins, Brazil´s North Region.

(Picture credit: Unsplash)