The question was a different one. Eliel Teixeira and Edwin Wu wanted to know from Paulo Brandão — a Federal District police officer in Brazil with 27 years on the job — what course he would build for American police based on what he saw at SWAT School in Los Angeles. The answer, on episode 48 of Palavrão Tático, turned back home: the American training model — short, focused, with the specialization done on the job, day after day — is, in his view, what Brazil is going to have to adopt. The reason is a problem both sides of the table found out they share: there aren't enough people.

The math that drives volunteers away

"Fewer and fewer cops want to be part of tactical units," one of the guests summed up. The reasoning of those who walk away is simple: I'm going to spend one, two, six months without sleeping or eating right to earn a qualification badge, I'm going to increase my exposure to danger — to make the same money I make where I am now? "Why would I do that?"

Pay matters. Asked whether tactical officers in Brazil get extra pay, the guest explained that it depends on the unit: his doesn't have it, others do, and the amounts vary by state — in Rio de Janeiro, he said, somewhere between a little over 1,000 and 2,500 reais. One of the hosts compared it with the American reality: in departments in the region, tactical teams get a differential that starts at around 11% of base salary. "To trade rifle fire, two thousand reais is way too little."

On the training side, the weight of responsibility has shifted too. As an instructor, the guest explained, anything that happens to a student during the course falls on the instructor and the institution — "it's my name on the line." The course that used to push students to the limit to see who would quit is now a risk nobody wants to take. The result: the call for volunteers goes out and nobody shows up. "Volunteering doesn't exist anymore. You have to create incentives."

The boom and the hangover of the Elite Squad effect

The hosts figured that the film Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite), from 2007, had kept the mystique of special operations alive in Brazil. The guests confirmed there was a boom — and that it had a downside: a lot of people came in chasing a movie image, thinking that was the life, and found out it wasn't. BOPE became a powerful brand, but the profile of the police officer has changed in the nearly 20 years since the film, and the phenomenon, they said, is nationwide: it happens in every state and every agency.

On the other side: the applicant crisis in the U.S.

"You're describing a phenomenon that unfortunately isn't just in Brazil," one of the hosts replied. In the United States, the problem starts before SWAT — at the front door of policing itself. The applicant's reasoning is similar to the Brazilian volunteer's: why work crazy shifts, with hazardous conditions, exposure and the risk of a lawsuit hanging over you, when you can take a cybersecurity course, make almost the same money and work Monday to Friday, business hours?

The numbers confirm the pressure. PERF's (Police Executive Research Forum) annual workforce surveys, covering hundreds of departments, recorded more resignations and retirements than hires between 2020 and 2022. The edition released in 2024 showed the first rebound in hiring, though still without bringing departments back to pre-2020 staffing levels.

And then there's quality. There are still applicants, the host explained, but maturity is lacking, and so is physical fitness in a more sedentary generation. The issue has reached the level of national security: a Department of Defense study using 2020 data concluded that 77% of young Americans aged 17 to 24 would not qualify for military service without some kind of waiver — and being overweight is the single most common reason. According to the CDC, obesity affects about 40% of American adults; combined with overweight, it's over 70%.

One of the guests summed up the paradox with humor: the police officer's profile has gone soft — and the criminal's hasn't. It's become more violent and more complex to deal with.

Operator and manager: two sets of scales

Asked how to fix this, the guest laid out two views. As an operator, he won't give up a course that's as selective as possible: he wants someone next to him he can trust, technically sound, who really wants to be there and pays the price. As a manager, the math is different: "I need people. I'm not Rambo, going in alone, taking out 300 and walking out holding hands with the hostage." Without manpower, there's no unit.

The answer, for him, isn't opening the door to just anyone — "not just anyone can be part of a team like this" — but changing how selection and training are done. That's where the American model comes in: a basic certification, short and put to good use, and the real training inside the unit, over years.

How California filters before it trains

In California, the heavy filtering happens at entry, as the hosts pointed out in the conversation. Applicants take a standardized POST written exam (the PELLETB), a physical test, a detailed background investigation and psychological and medical evaluations before entering the academy. After graduating, they still go through the field training program under the supervision of a field training officer, plus a probationary period that typically runs more than a year. Only then are they a full-fledged officer — and for tactical teams, departments usually require years on patrol before the first application.

What the two of them think about it

In the episode, Eliel Teixeira and Edwin Wu talk about the recruiting challenges in American departments and what they have in common with the shortage of volunteers in Brazilian units. The full conversation, including Paulo Brandão's reasoning on the operator and the manager, is in the episode.

Sources and verification

Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), Workforce Survey (2021 to 2024 editions). U.S. Department of Defense, Qualified Military Available study (2020 data, released in 2022). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHS Data Brief No. 508, Obesity and Severe Obesity Prevalence in Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023 (2024). California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), selection requirements (PELLETB, background, psychological evaluation) and Field Training Program. Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite), directed by José Padilha (2007). The extra-pay figures cited are accounts from the episode's participants and vary by state, unit and department.

Who's talking here: Eliel Teixeira and Edwin Wu are active-duty police officers in the Los Angeles area, California — Brazilian-born, American citizens, with long careers in law enforcement. In this episode, they host Paulo Brandão, a police officer in Brazil's Federal District for 27 years, and Felipe Teixeira, a police officer in the Federal District for 16 years, who came to Los Angeles for SWAT School.

Note: everything described here applies to the rules in California — and, in several respects, to each officer's specific department. In other U.S. states the rules change; in Brazil, each police force has its own organic law and internal regulations.