E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2 page 9 Datafolha, 24% of those interviewed in São Paulo thought that torture was an acceptable means of criminal investigation, a rise of 4% over a similar opinion poll conducted in 1997. 37. Recommendation (m) stated: Investigations of police criminality should not be under the authority of the police themselves, but in principle, under the authority of an independent body with its own investigative resources and personnel. As a minimum, the Office of the Public Prosecutor should have the authority to control and direct the investigation. They should also have unrestricted access to police stations. 38. Recommendation (n) stated: Positive consideration at the federal and state levels should be given to the proposal to create the function of investigating judge, whose task would be to safeguard the rights of persons deprived of liberty. 39. Recommendation (o) stated: If for no other reason than to bring an end to chronic overcrowding in places of detention (a problem that building more detention places is unlikely to be able to solve), a programme of awareness-raising within the judiciary is imperative to ensure that this profession, at the heart of the rule of law and the guarantee of human rights, becomes as sensitive to the need to protect the rights of suspects, and indeed of convicted prisoners, as it evidently is to repress criminality. In particular, the judiciary should take some responsibility for the conditions and treatment which befall those they order to remain in pre-trial detention or sentence to terms of imprisonment. When dealing with ordinary criminality, they should also be reluctant, when alternative charges are available, to proceed with charges that prevent the grant of bail, rule out alternative sentences, require closed-regime custody, and limit progression of sentences. 40. Recommendation (p) stated: For the same reason, the law on heinous crimes and other relevant legislation should be amended to ensure that often long periods of detention or imprisonment are not imposable for relatively low-level criminality. The crime of “disrespecting authority” (desacatar functionario publico no exercisio de sua function), article 331 of the Penal Code, should be abolished. 41. Recommendation (q) stated: There should be sufficient public defenders to ensure that legal advice and protection are available for every person deprived of liberty from the moment of arrest. 42. Recommendation (r) stated: Greater use should be made of and the necessary resources provided for such institutions as community councils, state councils on human rights and police and prison ombudsmen. In particular, fully resourced community councils, which include representatives of civil society, notably human rights non-governmental organizations, with unrestricted access to all places of detention and the power to collect evidence of official wrongdoing, should be established in each state. 43. Recommendation (s) stated: The police should be unified under civilian authority and civilian justice. Pending this, Congress should approve the draft law submitted by the federal Government to transfer to the ordinary courts jurisdiction over manslaughter, causing bodily harm and other crimes including torture committed by the military police.