In Brazil, the Civil Police (called the ''Polícía Civil'' in Portuguese) is the country's investigative state police forces. The Civil Police are under the authority of the federative units of Brazil. The federative units' job is to protect public safety and keep public order. Article 144 of the Federal Constitution of 1988 gives this job to the federative units (and their agency, the Civil Police).
Each of the states of Brazil has its own Civil Police Department, which carries out detective work, forensics, and criminal investigations. Each Civil Police Department acts as a state bureau of investigation.