What LatAm cities can learn from the failures of Brazil's UPP policing model
The shift toward more "humane" policing was impeded by how heavily the institution had been shaped by military influence
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Community policing has become the go-to security strategy in the Americas. But as the case of the Rio de Janeiro's "pacification" policing experiment shows, its impact has been limited and short-lived. The UPP program was once welcomed by many in the marginalized favelas as a radical change from the traditionally heavy-handed and militarized policing approach reserved for the city's impoverished areas. Security gains proved short-lived. By 2015, homicides were again on the rise. Impunity toward police abuses and extrajudicial killings -- which was singled out in Rio -- constitutes a challenge to normative changes within institutions. (See also: Rio is burning, the first UPP was literally set on fire | Why police reforms rarely succeed: Lessons from Latin America)
