Police in Brazil’s two largest cities, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, have functioned as judge, jury and executioner in recent years by summarily executing suspects and then covering up the killings with false reports. According to a new report by Human Rights Watch (Lethal Force), police in the two metropolises have averaged almost 2,000 deaths a year, with a total of 11,000 since 2003. In 2008, police in Rio averaged three extrajudicial killings a day. They also averaged one killing for every 23 arrests. By contrast, in the United States, there is one killing by police for every 37,000 arrests.