Objective:

This work explores the narratives of the police forces of Patagonia inscribed in their museums, monuments, and memorials, in order to analyze the role of police violence as a producer of social space and Patagonian collective memories.

Methodology:

The paper presents an ethnographic register produced in different visits to the places of memory in three different provincial narratives: those of the Neuquén police through the Inspector Luis Dewey Museum and Archive as well as the memorials and monuments of the provincial interior that remember the “fallen in the line of duty”; the police stations of the rural interior of the province of Río Negro that emerge as distinctive architectural monuments of towns and places; and finally, the Police Museum Commissioner General (r) Roberto Godfrid of Santa Cruz.

Originality:

Police violence is a difficult topic to approach This work resorts to the narratives of the forces, identifying its different forms of appearance and weighing the value it has to build historical senses of belonging.

Conclusions:

These places of memory allow us to investigate the positions and police disputes over the construction of the Patagonian collective memory, as well as its denials, silences, and omissions. Researching the discretionary appearance of violence in their narratives (sometimes naturalized, others silenced, and others made explicit), brings forth the social place that the police build for their institutions in relation to society, while at the same time evidences the tensions and inward differences of the forces.