RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A permanent police force is being installed in a large Rio de Janeiro slum near the football stadium that will host the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and the opening of the 2016 Olympics.
Rio state’s public safety department said in a statement Thursday that 35,000 people will be served by a unit of 400 officers, 300 of whom graduated last week from the police academy.
Officials said that with the latest permanent police post, all the slums that surround the Maracana stadium now have a police presence.
Under the policing program, elite units head into violent slums to push out heavily armed drug gangs, many of which have controlled the shantytowns for decades.
