Abstract

In 2008, the local government of Rio de Janeiro began the implementation of the Pacifying Police Units (Upps) program in the city's favelas, Brazil's informal settlements. The program was first promoted as a new community police initiative, but ultimately came to be rebranded as a proximity policing program. The purpose of this article is to explain this shift and how community policing and proximity practices have being implemented. Data collected from an ethnographic study support the analysis of the relations with community members, decentralization of police powers, prevention of crime and delivery of social services inside the pacified favelas.