Pacifying Police Unit


The Pacifying Police Unit, abbreviated UPP, is a law enforcement and social services program pioneered in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which aims to reclaim territories, most commonly favelas, controlled by gangs of drug dealers. The program was created and implemented by State Public Security Secretary, with the backing of Rio Governor Sérgio Cabral. The stated goal of Rio's government is to install 40 UPPs by 2014. By May 2013, 231 favelas had come under the UPP umbrella.

Background

For decades, many of Rio de Janeiro's favelas have been controlled by gangs of armed drug traffickers. Beginning with the first UPP that was implemented in Dona Marta in 2008, many of Rio's major favelas have received pacifying police forces. For decades, Rio has seen a cycle of police raiding favelas, having shootouts with traffickers, and then withdrawing again. And also part of the cycle were frequent wars between different traffickers, leading to more shootouts, endangering the lives of the people living in many of these favelas.
The favelas chosen for the UPP program have previously not paid for public utilities but would have to pay fees to whatever criminal organization controlled the area; this often leads to a recurrence of extortion and tax evasion.
Therefore, the concept for the UPP was finally put into action as a first-step solution to deal with the urban cycle of violence.

Implementation

Before a UPP is established in a favela area, gang leaders are driven out by Rio's elite police battalion, BOPE, who search for heavy weaponry and drug caches.
The inauguration of a new UPP is timed with the exit of BOPE from the area and the replacement of hundreds of newly trained policemen, who work within the particular area of favelas as a permanent police force.
As of September 2013, 34 UPPs have been established within Rio de Janeiro with the stated goal of Rio's government to install 40 UPPs by 2014. Some UPPs, such as for that for Rocinha, only cover the territory of one specific favela, while other UPPs such as Manguinhos or Jacarezinho, also each cover smaller favela communities under their administrative umbrella.
Other favelas that now have UPPs include Cidade de Deus, Dona Marta, and Morro da Babilônia. In general, where the UPPs have been implemented, violent crime has fallen dramatically, while property values have increased.

Results

Because the favelas with UPPs had formerly been controlled by armed drug traffickers for more than twenty-five years, the fear of retribution, which was a mainstay of the "law of the traffickers", is slow to die. For instance, in April 2012 when a drug trafficker who had formerly controlled the favela of Mangueira was shot and killed during a police operation in Jacarezinho, others from the same criminal faction ordered businesses to close their doors early in Mangueira — which they did. This despite the fact that Mangueira has a permanent pacification police force as part of its own UPP. A similar occurrence of businesses closing their doors early in Mangueira because the traffickers ordered it occurred in February 2013.
In May 2012, Beltrame acknowledged that armed criminals had migrated from parts of Rio that have a large police presence due to areas with less police and no UPPs, such as nearby Niterói, across the bay. Beltrame has stated however that he believes based on analysis of crime data that only gang leaders higher in the hierarchy could reestablish in other favela communities ; and that lower level traffickers have a much harder time integrating into other geographic areas.
While the favela areas under pacification have seen improvements, the concentration of criminals has increased in other parts of Rio de Janeiro that don't have the direct benefits of permanent pacification police forces actively patrolling the neighborhoods. Among these are the Baixada Fluminense, Niterói, and certain neighborhoods in the North Zone.
It was obvious early on that criminals fled particular favelas before BOPE entered. Previously, when police had attempted to encircle a favela to arrest and kill traffickers in surprise attacks, large-scale shootouts would ensue, and innocent residents were caught in the crossfire.
after gunfire
While more high-profile gang leaders have been forced to leave favelas now administered by UPP police forces, their familial connections remain. Also, gang members from other favelas who are of the same faction as residents under UPPs, still coordinate and visit each other. Exemplifying this point, one of Rio's newspapers reported on 9 July 2012 that groups of criminals fired upon police in different locations within the Complexo do Alemão on the same day that military forces completed their final withdrawal from the area.
There is a well known history of police abuse and corruption in Rio de Janeiro, and for years this only added fuel to the war between drug traffickers controlling Rio's favelas and the police.
In recent years there have been concerted efforts under Secretary Beltrame to root out corrupt police; and this is the very reason that the community policing of the favelas under the UPP program are staffed by new recruits coming straight from the UPP police academy — such as the 750 officers who will be policing the large Rocinha favela beginning in August 2012.
Beltrame has stated that the main purpose of the UPPs is more toward stopping armed men from ruling the streets than to put an end to drug trafficking. A 2010 report by the World Organization Against Torture did note the drop in the homicide rate within Rio de Janeiro's favelas.

Other indicators

A survey that was conducted among Rio's favela residents in July 2012 showed that there has been a reduction in the number of violent crimes and deaths. Other crimes that previously went unreported in favelas are now showing up in the crime statistics such as theft, domestic violence, and rape. Other results of the survey showed that people felt more free to discuss previously taboo topics such as street violence and illegal drug activity, but many are still intimidated to speak out, fearing that the UPP measure is only temporary.
Unemployment is reportedly quite low in some South Zone favelas such as Pavão-Pavãozinho, where the unemployment rate was reported as 5% in July 2012, compared with neighborhoods in the North Zone where life is often more difficult, where the median income is 34.4% less than in pacified favelas in the South Zone. In the South Zone favela of Chapéu Mangueira, 92.2% of residents own a cell phone.
Journalists within Rio studying ballot results from the 2012 municipal elections observed that those living within favelas administered by UPPs distributed their votes among a wider spectrum of candidates compared to areas controlled by drug lords or other organized crime groups or gangs such as milícias.

Violence

On 23 July 2012, the first police officer to die in a UPP administered favela was shot and killed by criminals within the Nova Brasília area of the Complexo do Alemão. At the time of the shooting, the female officer, 30-year-old Fabiana Aparecida de Souza, who had only been on the force a few months, was at a small UPP station within the favela, when the building was shot at by 12 assailants and she was hit in the abdomen by a rifle bullet. Ten minutes before this occurred, eight assailants shot at two officers patrolling the Pedra do Sapo part of the Complexo, but nobody was injured.
The previous week, police were patrolling the area of Fazendinha within the Complexo when they were attacked two different times. In one of the incidents, a grenade was thrown which exploded near their patrol car..

UPPs in Rio de Janeiro

Date UPP establishedUnit UPP nameNeighborhood Zone within Rio
2 December 201336ª UPPCamarista MéierMéier North Zone
2 December 201335ª UPPLinsLins de Vasconcelos North Zone
September 201334ª UPPParque Arará/MandelaBenfica North Zone
May 201333ª UPPCerro-CoráCosme Velho South Zone
12 April 201332ª UPPBarreira and TuiutiSão Cristóvão Centro
12 April 201331ª UPPCajuCaju, Nove Galo North Zone
16 January 201330ª UPPJacarezinhoJacaré North Zone
16 January 201329ª UPPManguinhosManguinhos, Parque Oswaldo Cruz, CHP2, Conjunto Nelson Mandela, Higienópolis, Vila São Pedro and Vitória de Manguinhos North Zone
20 September 201228ª UPPRocinhaRocinha South Zone
28 August 201227ª UPPVila CruzeiroPenha North Zone
August 201226ª UPPParque ProletárioPenha North Zone
June 201225ª UPPChatubaPenha North Zone
27 June 201224ª UPPFé/SerenoPenha North Zone
30 May 201223ª UPPAlemãoComplexo do Alemão North Zone
11 May 201222ª UPPAdeus/BaianaBonsucesso North Zone
18 April 201221ª UPPNova BrasíliaBonsucesso North Zone
18 April 201220ª UPPFazendinhaInhaúma North Zone
18 January 201219ª UPPVidigalVidigal South Zone
3 November 201118ª UPPMangueiraSão Cristóvão Mangueira, and Benfica North Zone
17 May 201117ª UPPSão CarlosEstácio and Rio Comprido Centro
25 February 201116ª UPPEscondidinho/PrazeresSanta Teresa Centro
25 February 201115ª UPPCoroa, Fallet and FogueteiroRio Comprido Centro
28 January 201114ª UPPSão João, Matriz and QuietoEngenho Novo North Zone
30 November 201013ª UPPMacacosVila Isabel North Zone
30 September 201012ª UPPMorro do TuranoTijuca, Rio Comprido North Zone
17 September 201011ª UPPSalgueiroTijuca North Zone
28 July 201010ª UPPAndaraíAndaraí North Zone
1 July 20109ª UPPFormigaTijuca North Zone
7 June 20108ª UPPBorelTijuca North Zone
25 April 20107ª UPPProvidênciaSanto Cristo, Gamboa and Saúde Centro
14 January 20106ª UPPTabajaras/CabritosCopacabana, Botafogo and Morro da SaudadeSouth Zone
23 December 20095ª UPPPavão-PavãozinhoCopacabana, Ipanema South Zone
10 June 20094ª UPPBabilônia and Chapéu-MangueiraLeme South Zone
18 February 20093ª UPPBatanRealengo West Zone
16 February 20092ª UPPCidade de DeusCidade de Deus West Zone
28 November 20081ª UPPSanta MartaBotafogo South Zone