Policía pacificadora, legitimidad y prácticas de ocupación territorial

This article analyzes the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) which, beginning in 2008, took over control of some of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro that were previously ruled by armed drugs gangs. Local authorities have implemented a “community and proximity police” program, in order to attain pacification and put an end to a violent and militarized approach to policing in marginalized urban areas. However, contrary to the institutional rhetoric, the pacification of the favelas has manifested itself as a militarized occupation with clear limits on its territorial reach and effectiveness. An analysis of police strategies and practices shows that the UPPs have not sought to convince the residents of the favelas to regard them as a legitimate force, a fact which in turn has been responsible for the major failure of the project: it has failed to put an end to the power of the gangs in these pacified territories. Therefore, this article contributes to the debate on the legitimacy of the police, one of the key subjects of the “policing studies” undertaken in the field of social sciences. Our observations are the result of a an ethnographic study of five months, during which the author observed the daily work of the policemen of three UPPs and conducted 93 indepth interviews with them and 25 with residents of the pacified favelas