The initiative
In 2006, Sergio Cabral, the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, identified potential reforms and José Mariano Beltrame, who had previous experience in narcotics investigations, was the first name on his new security team. In 2007, working with the support of the governor, “the state’s secretary for public security, José Mariano Beltrame, and his colleagues tried a new approach”. [1] Beltrame responded by creating the Unidade de Policia Pacificadora (UPP), a unit within the state military police.
The aim was to provide a continuous police presence and help in extending the government’s reach in areas of conflict. Beltrame’s main goal was to disarm the gangs and then implement public and private services effectively in these areas. The overall aim of the programme was “to increase security by restoring state control in the favelas and by integrating the favelas and their residents into the formal city.” [2]
Beltrame collected intelligence about the favelas, identifying 100 favelas with very high crime rates, and created a detailed, long-term action plan. After this intelligence-gathering phase, plans were made to establish the UPP in 40 of the 100 identified favelas by 2014.
The challenge
From 1897 to 1985, the state of Rio de Janeiro had been periodically affected by violence in the favelas – the slums and shantytowns of the city. The military police relied on frequent raids in order to control the violence in these areas. In the late 1980s, the drug trade moved south from the Caribbean into central Latin America.
One of the results of this movement was an increased level of urban violence in the Rio favelas, both between rival drug-trafficking gangs and between gangs and the police. Members of the public were often caught in the crossfire, frequently being shot by the police. Poorly-trained and underpaid officers working in the favelas were susceptible to bribes from the drug traffickers, and the state government was concerned that some areas of Rio were in danger of becoming beyond the reach of the law.
The public impact
Stakeholder engagement
The main stakeholders were Sergio Cabral, José Mariano Beltrame and his team at the UPP, along with the external stakeholders: the Brazilian government, the private sector, and the inhabitants of the Rio de Janeiro favelas.
There was intense pressure on Cabral from the external stakeholders to find a solution to the drug-related violence. His general management style was to delegate authority to members of his cabinet in return concrete results. When Beltrame proposed the plan for the UPP’s community policing strategy, he approved it and put his political weight behind it.
Political commitment
Public confidence
Clarity of objectives
Strength of evidence
Many gang control programmes in Rio’s history had met with partial or temporary success; Beltrame reviewed these programmes in order to identify the problems that had caused such reform efforts to fail in the past. He and the other UPP staff also took inspiration and evidence from a successful public security programme that had been adopted in Medellin, Colombia to fight its endemic drug trafficking.
In Rio, the UPP programme was initially rolled out on a trial basis. The first favela to be tested was Santa Marta. The Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE, the Military Police) conducted operations in Santa Marta to remove weapons and then the UPP moved in. This process was then repeated in subsequent exercises for the other favelas.
Feasibility
Management
There was a clearly-defined management structure such that each UPP unit had its own headquarters, bases and operational equipment and was run by its own commander-in-chief.
There was also a coordinating body, which oversaw the totality of UPP operations. The UPP was composed of officials and high-ranked personnel and had a strong management structure and skilled managers.
Each UPP was administratively connected to a battalion in the Military Police.
Measurement
Alignment
Resources
Richard Bennet, 2008 – 2010, Princeton University
organised by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, 28 March 2014
Sarah Oosterbaan, Joris van Wijk, 2015, International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, Volume 39, Issue 3