Polizia di Stato


The Polizia di Stato is one of the national police forces of Italy. Alongside the Carabinieri, it is the main police force for providing police duties, primarily to cities and large towns, and with its child agencies it is also responsible for highway patrol, railways, airports, customs, as well as certain waterways, and assisting the local police forces.
It was a military force until 1981 when the Italian State Law 121 was passed. This converted the State Police to a civil force, which is in contrast to the other main police forces of Italy: the Arma dei Carabinieri, which is a military police force and the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian customs and border protection police that also falls in the military corps category.
The Polizia di Stato is the principal Italian police force for the maintenance of public security and as such it is run directly by the Department of Public Security, and the keeping of public order. Interpol summarizes the primary focus of this force: "Its responsibilities include investigative and law enforcement duties, and the security of motorway, railway, and waterway networks."

History

While the modern Polizia di Stato was created in 1981 with the merger of the many civil police services of Italy, its roots date back to 1852 as the police force of the then Kingdom of Sardinia.
It is the successor and heir to the traditions of military and civil police organizations under both monarchy and republic.

Before unification

On 11 July 1852, the King of Sardinia Victor Emmanuel II established the Public Security Guards, a prototype city police service created to serve Turin and Genoa for the protection of their citizens, and also formed detachments of municipal police. This date is marked as the official anniversary of the State Police.
At that time there were a number of provincial National Guard and Municipal Militia battalions, plus cavalry platoons detached from the army and Carabinieri.

Unified Italy

In 1859, given the current situation regarding the Unification of Italy, the Public Security Guards became the de facto national civil police of a unified Italian nation. Law 3570 officially introduced police inspectors into the growing force, and to ensure the security of the residents of a number of provincial capitals and other major cities, the questori, appointed by the leadership with Royal assent, were also introduced becoming the police chiefs of these areas.
On 9 October 1861, the General Directorate of Public Security of the Kingdom was formally established to serve as the central authority for civilian law enforcement.

Mission

, provides this summary of the force's responsibilities: "protecting the state, safeguarding the rights and freedoms of citizens, supervising the maintenance of public order, maintaining public safety, providing assistance to public entities and private in the event of accidents and disasters as well as the peaceful resolution of disputes between private individuals. It also deals with the training and education, at its facilities, of members of other police bodies... speciality departments include the Traffic, Railway, Communications Police, the Mobile Departments and the Scientific Police."

Strength

The State Police has an authorised strength by law of 115,000 people. However, there are approximately 110,000 people of which 16,000 are women. Just under 6,000 employees are civilian support personnel with technical skills who provide logistic and technical support. In 2005 the State Police contained 105,324 members as follows: 893 dirigenti, 1,839 vice questori, 723 commissari capo, 19,230 ispettori, 666 vice ispettori, 13,677 sovrintendenti, 38,976 assistenti, and 29,320 agenti.
Approximately 1,500 officers are assigned to the "neighbourhood police" service, the Polizia di Quartiere, which has a police presence on the streets and deters crime. Pairs of poliziotti patrol areas of major cities on foot.

Organization

The headquarters of the Polizia di Stato are in Rome and its chief is referred to as the Capo della Polizia with official Rank of Capo della Polizia – Direttore Generale della Pubblica Sicurezza. The Chief of the State Police is also the Honorary President of the National Association of State Police. Three vice chiefs/directors-general report to the chief and their main functions are:
  • accomplishment of the functions
  • planning and coordination activity
  • Director of the Criminal Investigation Police
The force is organized on a regional and provincial basis. The territory of the Italian Republic is divided into 20 regions. They include 107 provincial commands—one each in the 14 metropolitan cities, 80 provinces, 6 free municipal consortiums, 4 abolished Friuli-Venezia Giulia provinces, 2 autonomous provinces—Bolzano – Alto Adige and Trento and 1 in Valle d'Aosta, which is an autonomous region with no provinces nor akin administrative subdivision at all. The administrative centre of each provincial command is the local headquarters, called Questura which is commanded by a Questore. The only exception is the recently created province of South Sardinia. The territory of each province is further divided into Public Security Offices, commanded by a Vice Questore Aggiunto or Commissario Capo. The lowest public security authority is the police station or precinct.

Headquarters organization

Main Offices, Divisions and Specialties of the State Police :
  • State Police Band
  • Data processing and computer center
  • Interregional and Regional Collection Centers
  • Central Directorate for the Criminal Police
  • Central Anticrime Directorate
  • Central Directorate for the Anti-Terrorism Police
  • Central Direction for the Instruction Institutes
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for Civil Aviation and Ministry of Transportation
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for Ministry of the Economic Development
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for Ministry of Labor and the Social Politics
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for Palace of the Viminale The Viminale is the headquarters of the Italian Ministry of Interior;
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for the Senate of the Republic
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for the Chamber of the Deputies
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for the Vatican City
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers
  • General Inspectorate of Public Security for the Presidency of the Republic
  • Central Operational Core of Security
  • Gaming and Betting police
  • Alpine Aid
  • Postal and Communications Police
  • Immigration and Border Police
  • Air Border Police
  • Maritime Police
  • Railway Police
  • Scientific Police
  • Highway Police
  • Police Mobile Units
  • Mounted Divisions
  • Artificers Units
  • K-9 Units
  • Superior School of Police
  • Police Air Command
  • Medical Service
  • Gold Flames

    Interregional organization

The Interregional Directorates, organized since 2007, are:
There is a Questura in each of the 105 Italian provincial capitals. It is responsible for all the activities carried out by the Polizia di Stato within the province.
It is commanded by the Questore, who is the public safety authority and has at his disposal all the police forces in the territory of competence, including the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza.

Commissariati di Pubblica Sicurezza

In major cities and highly populated towns, there are police stations named Commissariati di Pubblica Sicurezza. Each Commissariato di Pubblica Sicurezza is under the Authority of a Questura. Their task is to control, prevent and fight crime in their jurisdiction, and to deal with paperwork as to, among other things, requests for gun licences, passports, permits, and regularization of foreigners.

Special operations

About 24,000 officers, that is almost a quarter of police personnel, work within the Highway Patrol, Railroad Police, Postal and Telecommunications Police and Border and Immigration Police.

Highway patrol

The Polizia Stradale, or PolStrada for short, is a highway patrol organization. PolStrada police public roads all over the country, including the of motorways, the main highways and arterial roads outside towns. Their duties are the prevention and detection of driving offences, car accident reports, planning and carrying out services to regulate traffic, providing escorts for road safety, protection and control of the road network, rescue operations and cooperation in the collection of traffic flow data.

Railway Police

The Polizia Ferroviaria, or PolFer for short, ensure the security of travellers and their belongings on trains and at stations plus the safety and control of dangerous goods. Railroad Police officers patrol, in particular, long-distance and night trains, and at stations in big cities where vagrants often accumulate. Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and other Ferrovie dello Stato companies co-operate fully with the railroad police in dealing with railway security for passengers.

Post and telecommunications

The Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni, or Polizia Postale for short, investigates all crimes that use communications as part of its modus operandi such as computer hacking, online child pornography, credit card fraud, spreading computer viruses or software copyright violations.

Immigration and Border Police

To control the flow of migrants into Italy, the Department of Public Security set up the Immigration and Border Police Service, to enforce regulations concerning the entry and stay of aliens in Italy. The service operates at both central and local levels with many land, air and maritime border police offices.
The service is also responsible for passport control, the issuing of residence permits, as well as the prevention and control of illegal immigration. Although due to the Schengen Agreement the land borders have disappeared, the division is still present on all borders to do systematic or random checks. In airports, the border police are in charge of security and immigration checks.