O programa de unidade de polícia pacificadora como instrumento do projeto de cidade competitiva

Abstract

The purpose of the present article is to bring to light evidences to demonstrate the hypothesis that one of the Peacekeeping Police Unit program’s targets is to be a consolidation instrument of the strategic planning schedule adopted in the city of Rio de Janeiro, having as one of its premises to spread the image of a safe city, with conditions to host major events and, mainly, to be attractive to the market and to large investments. Introducing the research, it will take place the approach of questions related to the economic background, with emphasis on the adoption of the neoliberal model, from the the 1970 decade and the current protagonism of the cities in the economic plane. The next moment, the analysis will focus on the city’s environment, that starts with the pre-installation cycle of the program (considering the beggining of the occupation of areas popularly denominated “favelas” by criminal gangs in the early 1980s) to the present days, in which the insecurity present in the city and the model of planning addopted in Rio de Janeiro will be evidenced. From this perspective, concepts and theories related to population domination instruments will be approached, focusing on police actions, and their relations with the neoliberal economic model. Regarding the Peacekeeping Police Units program itself, it will be questioned if it would be a market-oriented program, more precisely a safe city project. For this purpose, the economic viability of the program will initially be analyzed, a fact that in itself demonstrates that it would not be a program that could be identically implemented and maintained in all territories, demanding the inevitable adptiong of selective criteria. Finally, as ratification of the mentioned selectivity, it will be shown in which areas of the city these units were implanted and the reasons beneath such selections.