This article presents a profile of the policemen who served in São Paulo police force between 1868 and 1896. Through biographical data - height, age, place of birth, color of skin, prior occupation, family situation - we aimed to identify, on the basis of the hierarchical pyramid, hints about the formation process of São Paulo's police apparatus; to the same one in which we intend to draw a picture of São Paulo's population - poor and male - during a period of crisis on the slavery system, changes in the work force, incorporation of an important foreign contingent and the substitution of the political paradigm in the country.
Police; São Paulo; Militarism; Formation of the State
