Battalion of Special Police Operations
Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais is the tactical police unit of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State in Brazil.
The BOPE was created in 1978 for PMERJ to have police officers who were specifically trained to act in hostage rescue operations and extreme risk situations. With time, BOPE had to do operations raiding Favelas to combat Rio de Janeiro's growing drug traffickers and organized crime, and it soon became recognized as one of the world's best units in urban warfare. The unit was subject of the 2007 film Tropa de Elite, which helped popularize the unit in Brazil and internationally, shaping public perceptions of its tactics and operational culture.
Duties
The BOPE currently perform a number of roles, including:- Providing additional security at special events;
- Break barricades constructed by drug traffickers;
- Shoot to kill at any criminal threatening either civilian or member life;
- Exterminate drug trafficking criminal factions and all of its members;
- Extract police officers or civilians injured in confrontations and combat;
- Rescuing officers and citizens captured by criminals or endangered by gunfire;
- Serve high-risk arrest warrants;
- Hostage rescue;
- Stabilising situations involving high-risk suicidal subjects;
- Suppress prison riots;
- Support civil police in combat of any kind;
- Providing superior assault firepower in certain situations;
- Armed patrols around the favelas;
- Special missions in swamps or mountainous terrains such as reconnaissance, planning and infiltration;
- Engage in combat-serving state sovereignty;
- Crime suppression;
- Resolving high-risk situations with minimal loss of life, injury, or property damage;
- Engage strongly armed criminal factions.
Equipment
Due to the nature of crime in favelas, BOPE units utilise equipment deemed more powerful than traditional civilian law enforcement, and have extensive experience in urban warfare as well as progression in confined and restricted environments.Small arms
BOPE soldiers are equipped with heavy armaments:| Model | Origin | Type |
| Taurus PT92 |  BrazilVehiclesThe force has a fleet of armoured fighting vehicles, which are known as "Pacificador", or "Caveirão" and one UH-1 Huey.These vehicles are used in operations in the slums where BOPE face intense conflicts with heavily armed drug dealers. UniformBOPE initially used black fatigues, which with time would become the trademark of the unit. In 2016, BOPE adopted the MARPAT camouflage pattern as its main uniform, which would help BOPE operators in operations in favelas and woodland environments, leaving black as mostly a ceremonial color.MiscellaneousBOPE also operates a wheel loader in order to remove obstacles, barricades and street blockades.ControversyBOPE has generated notoriety due to their role in the violent drug war in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and they have been referred to as a "Death Squad" by multiple newspapers. One aspect that has been pointed out specifically is their logo, which bears a knife in a skull over crossed pistols. According to the official BOPE website, the knife in the skull symbolizes "victory over death" and the crossed pistols are the symbol of the military police.A 2005 report on extra judicial executions by the New York University School of Law indicated that BOPE was involved in the deaths of 4 teenagers under the pretext that they were drug traffickers who were resisting arrest: "BOPE officers falsified the crime scene in order to incriminate the victims. Hoping this way to make them appear to be gang members. No weapon was found on any of the victims. None of them had any previous history of criminal activity." Amnesty International declared that "the police forces in Brazil adopt violent and repressive methods. These cause violations of fundamental rights of large parts of the population on a regular basis", and attributes a certain number of killed civilians to BOPE in particular. In March 2006, Amnesty International specifically condemned the use of vans with armoured plating, known as a Caveirão. It stated that deploying the vehicle aggressively, indiscriminately targeting whole communities, highlighted the ineffectiveness of excessive use of force. BOPE "played a central role" in the 2025 Operation Containment. A purchase of rifles from a United States company by the unit was objected to by then ambassador Elizabeth Bagley with a memo describing the unit as "among the most notorious police units in Brazil in regard to killings of civilians" previously, the unit had imported at least 800 rifles from the United States. Similar named police unitsBOPE of PMERJ is one of the best known units of its kind among Brazil's military police organizations.Military Police of Alagoas, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states also call their tactical units BOPE, while the military police of the Federal District and Piauí states call their forces "Special Operations Battalion". BOpE or BOPE are acronyms that can refer to the following specialized military police units: BOpE (''Batalhão de Operações Especiais'') units
BOPE (''Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais'') units
In popular cultureIn 2006, the book Elite da Tropa was published. Written by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares and two BOPE officers, Major André Batista and Captain Rodrigo Pimentel, it provides a semi-fictional account of the daily routine of BOPE as well as some historical events, based on the experiences of the latter two. It describes BOPE as a "killing machine" and details an alleged aborted assassination attempt by some police officers on then-governor Leonel Brizola. The book was controversial at the time of release, and reportedly resulted in Batista being reprimanded and censored by the Military Police.The book has been made into a movie, Tropa de Elite, directed by José Padilha, with a screenplay by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani. In 2010 the movie gained a sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within. Two BOPE operators make an appearance in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege as playable operators. These operators are Capitão and Caveira. OPES is a Brazilian special police unit in the South Korean online 2007 first-person shooter Crossfire. The OPES logo features a skull and a knife similar to that of the BOPE. The OPES were introduced with the release of the 2011 Brazilian release of the game. BOPE is featured on Season 1, Episode 2 of Elite World Cops, a television show hosted by former SAS soldier and author Chris Ryan. The UFE, one of the main antagonist factions that the protagonist Max goes up against in Max Payne 3, are based on the BOPE with many of them violating fundamental rights of civilians and using violent and lethal actions against denizens of favelas. |