Taming slums and cops gone wild

In the midst of an unprecedented effort to fight lawlessness in Rio de Janeiro’s slums, the Civil Police force has been rocked by corruption allegations. Solana just summed up the latest today, but if you’d like a bit more context, read on.

The city falls under the ambit of various civil, federal and military police agencies, each playing a role in the city’s ongoing effort wrench slums from the grip of drug gangs. Police corruption is widely believed to have buttressed the power of these gangs, with cops being accused of selling traffickers weapons, protection and even tip-offs on the eve of police operations. As the frequency of police operations in the slums mounts, so too has the number of cop-on-cop investigations. The excellent blog Rio Real has a great roundup connecting dots among several recent slum operations and police corruption probes, calling the effort two sides of the same coin.