SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME was HERITAGE’s first research collaboration that explored the relationship between territory, performance and resilience. The research project was led by HERITAGE and Eliana Sousa SILVA in the Complexo da Maré, and was a response to a 14-month occupation of the territory by the Brazilian army between 2015 and 2016. The aim was to generate and share insights about how Maré residents were responding to, resisting and building resilience in the face of the increasing militarisation of public security in fragile and socially marginalized communities in Rio de Janeiro, which were already dominated by armed criminal gangs (ACGs). The research demonstrated the detailed information and territorially specific data that is needed to create a strategic, evidence-based plan for policing vulnerable communities. This item provides an executive summary of the research process which included extensive quantitative and qualitative data collection undertaken by SILVA, as well as a cultural exchange programme led by HERITAGE. As part of the research HERITAGE invited two scholars and two artists (Brazilian and British) - Nicolas Espinoza, Rafael Puetter, Samuel van Ransbeeck and Tori Holmes - to work on new ways to engage the public with the data and findings from the research. 

This bulletin, written by Sousa SILVA in collaboration with HERITAGE (Co-Investigator), was made available by Maré Development Networks and People’s Palace Projects (PPP) as part of the research process. Also available publicly for download from the Maré Development Networks website.

Between 2015 and 2016 HERITAGE curated a 12-week research exchange programme for Eliana Sousa SILVA in the UK during which SILVA had a series of meetings with academics and artists working in the fields of Human Rights and Public Security/Law as well as members of the police force in the UK, NGOs and arts organisations.

As part of the research process HERITAGE also brought four public security experts from Rio de Janeiro to the UK for a series of meetings, including: Regina Miki (National Secretary of Public Security, Ministry of Justice); Colonel Joseli Cândido da Silva (Special Advisor to the Commander of the Military Police, Rio de Janeiro); Rivaldo Barbosa de Araújo Junior (Police Commissioner, Head of the Homicide Department, Civil Police, Rio de Janeiro); Jailson de Silva e Souza (Founder of the Observatory of the Favelas). This was followed by a reciprocal visit by six UK public security experts to Rio de Janeiro, including: Cindy Butts, IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) UK; Mick Duthie, Detective Chief Superintendent, Homicide and Major Crime Command, Metropolitan Police (UK); Nick Fallowfield, Inspector, Metropolitan Police (UK); Deborah Coles, Co-Director of Inquest (UK); Daniel Machover, Head of Civil Litigation for Hickman & Rose Solicitors, UK.

 Documentation of cultural exchange: Schedule documenting exchange meetings and transcripts of interviews/meetings.