Análise do efeito dos cães farejadores em ações policiais com apreensão de entorpecentes : um estudo à luz da teoria econômica do crime

Abstract

This research aims to investigate whether the use of sniffer dogs contributes to increasing police effectiveness in actions against drug-related crimes. To achieve this objective, the research was structured into two articles and has the following specific objectives: (1) explore the production of knowledge on the use of sniffer dogs in enforcement actions against drug-related crimes, and (2) estimate the effect of the K-9 Patrol factor on police actions that resulted in drug seizures within the jurisdictions of the Operational Units of the Military Police of Espírito Santo that received K-9 Patrols between 2018 and 2023. The first article explored the production of scientific knowledge about sniffer dogs’ application in enforcement actions against drug-related crimes, employing literature review techniques. As a result of this research, a thematic map of the field was developed, and a narrative synthesis was carried out, highlighting conflicting findings regarding the use of this police technique. As a research agenda, this article identified a lack of publications on the use of sniffer dogs in drug enforcement at municipal or equivalent jurisdictions, as well as the absence of any impact evaluation of sniffer dog application in police operations. The second article builds on this research agenda and is characterized as an empirical study investigating the effect of K-9 Patrols on police actions that resulted in drug seizures by Espirito Santo Military Police, from the perspective of the Economic Theory of Crime. This is a quantitative study that employed statistical techniques such as Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (RM-ANOVA) and the Chow Test. The RM-ANOVA results indicated an increase in the number of police actions that resulted in cocaine or crack seizures following the introduction of sniffer dogs, although the effect was limited. In all other analyses, both through RM-ANOVA and the Chow Test, no statistical significance was found