Polizia di Stato


The Polizia di Stato is one of the national police forces of Italy.
Alongside with 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 from the Dipartimento della Pubblica Sicurezza, 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 moden 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.

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... specialty 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/director generals report to the chief and their main functions are:
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 exceptions are the 2 recently created provinces and 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 :
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.

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.
Polizia di Quartiere is the Quarter Police. Pairs of Poliziotti patrol areas of major cities on foot.

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 of 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 travelers 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.
s at Venice Railway Station

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 level 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.

Mobile units

There are 13 mobile units of "Reparto Mobile" located in the main Italian cities. These can be deployed throughout the country to maintain public order with crowd-control equipment and vehicles or perform rescue services in areas affected by natural disasters. These units employ personnel that are trained and equipped for their task.
The P.d.S.'s bomb disposal units, mounted detachments, canine units, air support squadrons and maritime and river police units all fall under the mobile unit HQ.

Anti Terrorism Police

The Anti Terrorism Police is a specialist body made up of the Central Directorate for the Anti Terrorism Police and of the Branches for General Investigations and Special Operations Division, located in the questure at the local level. The Directorate for the Anti Terrorism Police has two departments: one is mainly responsible for information collection and analysis while the other develops and coordinates investigations aimed at preventing and fighting terrorism. The Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza is the State Police's elite police tactical unit.

Training

Recruit training is carried out at the police academy and at an advanced school for senior police officers. There are schools for basic training of cadet officers and technical operators, for teaching police specialties, for instructors, pilots, dog handlers and mounted police officers and the community police school.

Weapons

The standard service pistol of the Polizia di Stato is the Beretta Model 92FS; other sidearms might be made available to the Police personnel according to necessities and assignments. In addition, a Beretta PM-12S sub-machine gun is issued to every squad car. Other firearms, such as the Beretta 70/90 assault weapons system, Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine guns and Benelli shotguns are in service with the corps and can either be issued to the general personnel according to particular necessities or to the specialties the officers are assigned to. A 40mm grenade launcher, the GL-40/90, manufactured by Luigi Franchi S.p.A. under license from Heckler & Koch of Germany is the standard issue weapon for riot control operations.

Vehicles

The State Police use Italian vehicles ranging from 1994 Fiat Puntos to the Alfa Romeo 159 2,4 JTD, and the Alfa Romeo 155 8v and foreign makes such as the Subaru Legacy SW and Subaru Forester, BMW E46 and E91, and the Volvo XC70.
In May 2004 the PdS received two Lamborghini Gallardos equipped with V10 engines and in the classic blue white livery with accessories such as a container for transporting organs and a defibrillator. The cars are used on the A3 Salerno-Reggio Calabria and the A14 Bologna-Taranto motorways.
Polizia di Stato
On 29 November 2009, one of the two Gallardos was severely damaged in an accident while returning from a public display in Cremona: it crashed into some parked cars while avoiding another car which crossed the road illegally. The Gallardo was fully insured, and is currently being repaired by Lamborghini itself.
On 30 March 2017 the PdS received the second Lamborghini Huracán equipped with V10 engines and 520 bhp in the classic blue white livery with accessories such as a container for transporting organs and a defibrillator.

Rank structure and insignia

Commissioners of Police

The commissioners of police are not sworn police officers, but senior civil servants, and are not uniformed.

Senior Officers

Inspectors

Sergeants

Constables