The Daily Repressive Life of the DOPS in Pernambuco: Structures, Practices and Impacts in the Autocratic and Bonapartist Period

This chapter offers a detailed analysis of the repressive workings of the Political and Social Order Police Station (DOPS) in Pernambuco between 1931 and 1956, highlighting the transition from the early republican period to the autocratic regime.Although the focus is on the work of the DOPS, it dialogues directly with the theme of legislation and the organization of the municipal police in the early Republic, showing how institutionalized repression took shape and gained strength in the context of the consolidation of the Brazilian state.The analysis reveals how the legal and political structures shaped the repressive practices of the police, integrating the DOPS into the strategies of social and political control in Pernambuco.The analysis integrates the trajectory of figures such as Adalgisa Rodrigues Cavalcanti, a communist militant who became a target of the repressive apparatus.This study contributes to an understanding of the evolution of police legislation, from its municipal character to its centralization in authoritarian regimes, exposing the mechanisms that transformed the police into an instrument of political repression.