This study analyzes the emergence and operation of the Urban Guard (in portugueses, GU) of Buenos Aires, (2004 and 2007), as a police communitary resulting of the reorganization of local government autonomy. This process resulted in a dual model of policing in the city, represented by GU in contraposition to the national security forces, more centralist and verticalized. This paper investigates the implications of GU in the dispute for police authority in the city and a particular historical way of security building: citizen safety. This duality represents a possible compromise between national interests and those of the city. The paper concludes with reflections on the crisis of this dual model, the redefinition of the security problem and the demands of a local "own police". It indicates that it is in the duality of security that an Urban Guard is understood, as a proximity policing that complements but does not replace the old police.
governmentality; police authority; public safety; local government; Buenos Aires
