Since the early 2000s, public security has been a recurrent issue for the city of Rio de Janeiro. However, within the context of mega-events in the city, Rio further accelerated its public security policy reform process. In 2008, the State of Rio de Janeiro’s Governor, Sergio Filho Cabral, decided to establish a «pacification» policy in the city. The main purpose of this policy lies in the creation of pacifying police units (UPP), which is a form of community policing that aims at reducing violence and criminality rates in the favelas. It is an innovation in the region’s overall security policies, since, until then, the only ones implemented in the favelas were repressive temporary occupations. Thus, the enactment of a pacification policy raises several questions in relation to its implementation on the field. How can community policing be implemented in areas where the State has long been considered as absent? To what extent do police officers reproduce the usual violent and repressive practices? What is police officers’ role in the field and how do they build a proximity relationship with the population?