Police officers are one of the main examples of what we call street-level bureaucrats, central actors in the implementation of public policies. In Brazil, a country of continental dimensions and 5,570 municipalities, state bureaucracy often has difficulty being present throughout the territory. However, one of the few state structures that actually reach the end throughout the country is the Military Police, perhaps the most visible representation of the state in relation to the citizen. The encounter between street-level bureaucrats and citizens is naturally marked by tension, as it is characterized by unpredictability, strong demands, and lack of information (Lipsky, 2010). In the case of police officers, who are responsible for ensuring the maintenance of law and order, these encounters differ from other state bureaucracies for a fundamental reason: security force representatives are more prone to encounters that involve the need to use force and can use this force on behalf of the State, including lethal if necessary (Alcadipani et al., 2023).