Notes on the Police Presence in the Urban Periphery of Salvador

Abstract

This article discusses the implementation of a public security policy - the Community Security Bases program - in Calabar, a favela located on the Atlantic coast of the city of Salvador in Bahia state, Brazil. I explore the ways in which police officers envisage the militarisation of urban peripheries. Setting out from the question, what does policing make possible? I demonstrate that, conceiving their work as a form of redemption for the target community, the Military Police see drug trafficking as something to be overcome, not through the complete extinction of the narcotics trade, but through the ‘pacification’ of the dealers’ actions. Thus the entire police operation consists of diverse attempts to ensure its activities form the sole point of reference for the local population to imitate. As discussed here, this has consequences for the relationship between the Military Police and the residents of this urban periphery.