Municipal Guards  Municipal Guards (), also called the Municipal Civil Guards ("Guardas Civis Municipais", singular: "Municipal Civil Guard"), are the security forces of municipalities (cities) of Brazil. Created in the time of the Empire of Brazil, the guardsmen are subordinated to the municipality mayors ("prefeitos"). Trained as a civilian uniformed agency, the city guards are responsible to police the municipal parks, properties, installations and the interior of municipal councils and city halls, according to the Brazilian Federal Constitution. Their patrols are called "rondas" (rounds) and there are 1,200 municipalities with Municipal Guards with more than 120,000 operatives according with the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. They are treated as police officers by the former president of the IPA (International Police Association) Brazilian section, Mr. George Henry Millard. The former Brazilian Minister of Justice and elected governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Mr. Tarso Genro, asked for them to be given more jurisdiction for their operatives, and especially for their official recognition by Brazil as public safety workers. Legally mandated missions IAW article 144, § 8º of the Federal Charter, when establishing activities, agencies and performance front to the Public Security and the safety of the people and the patrimony, stresses the responsibility of all but and mainly of the "State" (Union, States, Federal District and Cities), for the following:  The Municipal Guards or Municipal Civil Guards had been reorganized from the original document of the Federal Constitution (1988), giving authority to the cities to create Municipal Guards for the protection of their goods, services and installations, and who are able to make use of the Law. Therefore, as a priority, they have to be able to act in these situations, but they also must be able to act in any other situation when crime is detected in the act, or threatens order or life, because in these cases, as the same Law, "any of the people can and the authorities & agents must act". Thus, even though it has divergences on the possibility the Municipal Guards' actions, the action is still supported by the Law. These organizations diverge sufficiently between one and another city. There is a common error which cites them as paramilitary organizations, when in the truth, the only reference to this type of organization in the Brazilian laws says that these paramilitary organizations do not have to exist. Therefore, the Municipal Guards are not paramilitary, nor need to have similarity with military organizations, although normally to be initiated under the command of military pensioners of the BMP, which generally don't act in the interests of the Civil Guard, presenting some traces of these organizations.