The (State Police or P.S.) 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 (together with the Guardia di Finanza), 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 (gendarmerie) 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."
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.
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 (Law no.1404), 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.
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 (13 November 1859) 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 , 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 (Royal Decree 225) to serve as the central authority for civilian law enforcement.
Europol (the EU's law enforcement agency), 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."
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 (leaders/officers), 1,839 vice questori (Vice-Questors), 723 commissari capo (Chief Superintendents), 19,230 ispettori (Inspectors), 666 vice ispettori (Sub-inspectors), 13,677 sovrintendenti (Sergeants), 38,976 assistenti (Senior agents), and 29,320 agenti (Constables/Agents).
Approximately 1,500 officers are assigned to the "neighbourhood police" service, the , which has a police presence on the streets and deters crime. Pairs of (policemen) patrol areas of major cities on foot.
The headquarters of the Polizia di Stato are in Rome and its chief is referred to as the (Chief of the Police) with official Rank of (Chief of the Police â Director General of Public Security). 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:
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 commandsâÂÂone each in the 14 metropolitan cities (), 80 provinces (), 6 free municipal consortiums (, the formal provinces of Sicily), 4 abolished Friuli-Venezia Giulia provinces, 2 autonomous provincesâÂÂBolzano â 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 which is commanded by a Questore (that is also the highest State Police authority for the province â â Provincial Authority of Public Security). The only exception is the recently created province of South Sardinia (established in and operational since 2016). The territory of each province is further divided into Public Security Offices (), commanded by a or (Chief Commissioner). The lowest public security authority is the police station or precinct ().
Main Offices, Divisions and Specialties of the State Police ():
The Interregional Directorates (), organized since 2007, are:
There is a 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.
In major cities and highly populated towns, there are police stations named (Public Security Offices). Each is under the Authority of a . 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.
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 ().
The Polizia Stradale, or 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.
The Polizia Ferroviaria, or 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.
The Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni, or 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.
To control the flow of migrants into Italy, the Department of Public Security set up the Immigration and Border Police Service (Polizia di Frontiera), 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 (hand baggage searches are done by airport companies or private security companies but are supervised by the Polizia di Frontiera and by the Guardia di Finanza) and immigration checks.
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.
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 (DIGOS â Divisione Investigazioni Generali e Operazioni Speciali), 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 (Central Operational Core of Security) is the State Police's elite police tactical unit.
Entry into the Italian State Police is achieved through a public competitive exam based on qualifications and examinations. The announcement may include specific quotas reserved for personnel already serving or for the children of victims of duty.
Starting from 1 January 2005, following Law No. 226 of 23 August 2004, all positions in the recruitment process for trainee police officers were reserved exclusively for individuals who were serving or had completed a voluntary term in the Italian Armed Forces, either as one-year volunteers (VFP1) or four-year volunteers (VFP4).
Since 1 January 2016, the competitions have once again been opened to civilian applicants, provided they meet all the required criteria, maintain an unblemished record, and fall within the required age limits. Nonetheless, part of the available positions continues to be reserved for fixed-term volunteers of the Armed Forces.
The recruitment procedures are still governed by several decrees of the Ministry of the Interior: Decree No. 115 of 6 April 1999, and Decree No. 276 of 2 December 2002; psycho-physical eligibility requirements are established by Decree No. 198 of 30 June 2003, while the exam subjects are regulated by Decree No. 129 of April 28, 2005.
After passing the competition, the successful candidates are assigned to the appropriate training institutions (such as the Trainee Officersâ School or the Higher Police School), with training durations varying depending on the role.
A general regulatory framework for recruitment is also provided by Legislative Decree No. 66 of 15 March 2010, which includes additional reservations of positions in cases strictly defined by law.
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 A2 Salerno-Reggio Calabria and the A14 Bologna-Taranto motorways.
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.
The directors of police are not sworn police officers, but senior civil servants, and are not uniformed.