The Pacifying Police Unit, abbreviated UPP, is a law enforcement and social services program pioneered in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is supposed to take back the territories, more commonly favelas, controlled by drug gangs for decades. The program was created and implemented by State Public Security Secretary José Mariano Beltrame, with the backing of Rio Governor Sérgio Cabral. This project was unveiled by the government in 2008 aiming to have 40 units by 2014. Even though the UPP is often praised by Brazilian media, it's been criticized by many others for its lack of long-term solution to the Brazilian safety problem. UPP are often being viewed as designed just to hide the violence and drive the drug gangs away from the places that will be popular during the major global events Rio is hosting.