Law enforcement of Italian Social Republic

The state security and law enforcement in Italy have a particular status due to the need to relate with Autonomous Republics of the Italian Empire and have a deep interpenetration with P.N.F. organization, tough maintaining a clearly distinct organization. This interpenetration is ensured through both mandatory Party membership and overall Party dominance over security party and state bodies.
The main and overall agency is the Ministry of the Interior. Below and functionally subordinated to the Ministry there are the two main security bodies: the Directorate General of Public Security, which controls the Republican Police Corps, and the Central Security Office of the Voluntary Militia for National Security, which relies mainly on O.V.R.A..
The Central Security Office (Ufficio Centrale di Sicurezza, U.C.S.) is a National Fascist Party body and is tasked with political security enforcement. The main instrument the UCS operates through is O.V.R.A., tasked with the protection of the Regime and the carrying out of independent intelligence service. OVRA and military intelligence are the two main espionage organizations and they are old rivals. As part of the internal security system, O.V.R.A. has the purpose of fighting anti-regime crimes: it operates against underground politicians, political criminals, dissidents, anti-fascists organizations and terrorists, and protects the Duce and most important Italian political elite members.
The Directorate General of Public Security operates the Republican Police Corps (It: "Corpo di Polizia Repubblicana", C.P.R.), which is the militarized police force of the Italian law enforcement system. Both the Directorate General and the Corps have several branches, although they are grouped in two main divisions, i.e. the Division of Criminal Police, which fights against serious organized crime and has a strong analytic, criminologist and intellectual base, and which controls also the Central Investigations Service, which in turn fights against the most dangerous and harmful criminal cases, and the "usual police", whose purpose is to protect the society from less serious crimes. Furthermore, the Public Security has limited intelligence capabilities, but it serves as partial counterbalance to the Party security apparatus. Politically, police serve to deter opposition to PNF directives, and contain it should it appear: the political police are the core of the system. However, police persecute only those who overtly expressed dissatisfaction or disagreement with the regime.
In addition to the Public Security administration, also the MVSN deploys some units and departments tasked with police and public security duties: with the exception of the Labour Militia, these units are under the overall direction of relevant Public Security bodies, although they constitute a more politically oriented policing. However, since all members of Public Security must be enrolled in the PNF, there is little or no serious or harsh rivalry, but a deeply felt professional competition.

Administrative Police

The Administrative Police is a state function characterized by a complex of powers given to the government to ensure the development of the normal administrative activities. Therefore, the administrative police is characterized by its ancillary and instrumental nature respect to the individual materials which in turn is inherent because the administrative police is nothing but a set of tasks that are entrusted to the care of the Authority exclusive public security, as part of a pervasive concept of public control over the activities of private individuals.
The activity of Administrative Police includes prevention activities not related to the Judicial Police nor to the Public Security, including: traffic police, rations police, commercial activities police, buildings and constructions police, urban and rural police, and other fields.
The activity of Administrative Police includes preventive and repressive activities, character enhancement, and is instrumental to the active administration. The main scope is to regulate certain activities, the issue of permits for the discharge of the same, the imposition of administrative penalties in case of violations.
Personnel having the powers of Agent of Administrative Police are comprised in several categories: all Agents, Officers and Authorities of both Public Security and Judicial Police, all Agents and Officers of Tributary Police (itself a branch of Administrative Police), all personnel belonging to the Fire Corps, all MVSN personnel (when in service), all GNR personnel, all Army, Navy and Air Force personnel when deployed in public order services, members of the local police corps, Mayors, Rectors and members of the consultative councils, their official delegates, Prefects, officials and clerks of Prefectures, Prefectorial Commissioners, all Ministries personnel empowered to conduct inspections against private citizens, other people (if appointed in this capacity by the Prefect).
The local administrative police is the complex of functions designed to avoid damage or loss that may be caused to legal entities or things in the conduct of activities relating to matters in which they are exercised the responsibilities that are attributed to the local authorities (Municipalities and Provinces) and which are not exercised by the State at provincial and municipal level.

Public order and security protection

The protection of public order goes beyond repressive activity to extend the scope to estimate, determination as to encompass all able to prevent the occurrence of conflicts and their degenerate into episodes of disturbance. Protecting the public order is primarily about preventing the causes that may break it.
Protection of public order is essentially the prevention of acts of collective violence and arbitrariness, but also the guarantee of social order, the harmonious development of labour relations, the quiet course of life Community in all its manifestations in accordance with Fascist principles.
The fundamental task of the public security is to ensure the conditions of social peace, preventing the crystallization of the factors that potentially threaten it, even before removing the disturbance were already in place.

Public Security Authority

The public security authority, under Italian law, supervises the maintenance of public order, of public security and of public safety, to their safety and the protection of property. Being the activity of Public Security a peculiar form of Administrative Police, all Authorities of P.S. are ipso facto Agents of Administrative Police.
The Authority takes care of the observance of the laws and regulations of general and special State, the provinces and municipalities, as well as the orders of the authorities; provides aid in the case of public and private injury. By means of the Officers of Public Security, at the request of the parties, provides for the amicable settlement of disputes private. Tasks of public security authority is therefore to ensure the conditions of social peace, preventing the factors that potentially threaten it and eliminating the states of disturbance already in place.
The public security authority is organized at the national, provincial and local levels:

• The powers of the national public security authority are exercised by the the Chief of Government, the Minister of the Interior and the Director General of Public Security
• The powers of Provincial Public Security Authority are exercised by the the Prefect and the Quaestor.
• The powers of the Local Public Security Authority are exercised by the head of the local Public Security Office or, in the absence of the Office, by the Podestà in his capacity of Officer of the Government. The Head of the Office of Public Security is the the Questor in the provincial capital and the officials in charge of the Commissariats of Public Security in the other municipalities. The Minister of the Interior is responsible for law enforcement and public safety, and the Imperial Authority of Public Security. He has senior management and responsibility of law and order and public security and coordinates the tasks and activities of the police forces. The Minister of the Interior carries out his tasks taking advantage of the Department of Public Security. The direction of the police intervention presupposes a hierarchical formalized in an order that the person should perform; coordination presupposes autonomy of the subject.

Being the Imperial Authority of Public Security, the Minister has the power to adopt measures and ordinances of police for law enforcement and public security. As Imperial Authority of Public Security, the Ministry of the Interior is politically responsible for the adopted policies.
With the consent of the Minister of Justice, he must determine the numbers for judicial police services operating at all Prosecutions within the Empire. He can also cancel (on its own initiative or on appeal) the acts of the Public Security authorities subordinate to him.
In his capacity of National Authority of Public Security, the Minister of Interior is the authority who co-ordinates, directs and is responsible for the police activities.

Provincial Authorities of Public Security

The Provincial Authorities of Public Security are responsible for the public security exercised at a provincial level. There are two Provincial Authorities of Public Security: one coincides with the local Prefect, while the other is the local Quaestor.
The Prefect has overall responsibility for public order and security in the region and oversees the implementation of directives adopted in the field, ensuring unity of direction and coordination of tasks and activities of the officers and agents of public security (but not the police force as a whole). The Prefect has the power to enact urgent ordinances (Ordinanze contingibili ed urgenti) which derogate from laws in order to deal with situations that endanger public order and public security. If reinforcements are needed for certain services, the assessment on the request lies with the Prefect, who also can dispose of reinforcements directly, although in practice he will put them at disposal of the Quaestor.
The local Quaestor is responsible for the management, accountability and coordination at the operational level of police services. Quaestors are also responsible for issuing the vast majority of police measures and acts, ranging from authorization to exercise commercial activities (if the legal system requires so) to the preventive measures against suspect people.

Local Authority of Public Security

The Local Authorities of Public Safety are responsible for the execution of the general tasks of public security. The Local Authority is the executive branch of the other levels and has a municipal jurisdiction: therefore there is an individual Local Authority in every Municipality. Every Local Authority must ensure the maintenance of order, ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, provide assistance, provide for the amicable settlement of disputes, sorting reports of suspicious or dangerous people, invite a person to appear before him, order the destruction or removal of explosives, issue licenses, and if required by the relevant legal system, receive hotel daily notices, receive the denunciation of the sale of properties, grant a license for the construction of temporary energy installations, authorize the use of masks, receive complaints of employer in respect of any accident at work, grant an authorization for use of airfield, receive complaints from discoveries of cultural goods and so on. No rule, law or regulation assigns tasks to the Local Authority in the field of law enforcement or crime prevention. Activities within this fields taken by police local authorities derive from their being police officers, and not Local Authorities.
Local Authorities of Public Security are:

• Quaestor, in the capital municipality;
• Heads of Detached Commissariats in the municipality where the Detached Commissariat is located;
• Police Stations Commanders, in their municipality;
• Podestà, where there is no police.

Officers and Agents of Public Security

The Officers and Agents of Public Security are the terminals of the Administration of Public Security and are available to the Authorities of Public Security. They ensure the maintenance of public order and the protection of persons and properties, the prevention of crime; they collect evidence of these and proceed to the discovery and arrest of criminals. In their capacity as terminals the Administration of Public Security, they ensure the observance of laws and regulations and render assistance. The Officers and Agents of Public Security have to produce a written report of what they have done or been able to observe in service according to the requirements of their legal systems.
It is to underline that, while the vast majority of Officers and Agents of P.S. are armed, this is not a prerequisite for Officers and Agents of P.S. per se.

Officers of Public Security

The Officers of Public Security provide their services at the request of the parties to settle private disputes. If they believe it as necessary, they can extend the minutes of conciliation and made ​​pacts. These minutes, signed by them, by the parties and by two witnesses, will be produced and will prevail in court, having the recognized value of private writings. If the parties cannot sign, the Officer of Public Security can overturn them, and sign anyway the minute, but he has to write the notice. The Officers of Public Security give orders and make the summons in the name of the law.
The Public Security Officers consist of all Police Officials and Officers and all Prison Officials. They, up to rank of Vicequestore and Lieutenant Colonel excluded, are also Officers of Judicial Police. Other categories of Officers of Public Security are the Officers of the MVSN and of the GNR.

Agents of Public Security

The Agents of public security have to promptly notify, in writing, the public security officers of every crime and every important event that happens in the places where they serve. In urgent cases, the information may be given verbally, held firm the obligation to report them later in writing. Agents of Public Security ordinarily consist in the Police, Prison Police, MVSN and GNR Non-Commissioned Officers and enlisted, as well as members of the Fire Corps. The status of Agents of Public Security may be conferred, temporarily, to drivers of vehicles used by high personalities.

Judicial Police

The Judicial Police did law-enforcement purposes: it is exercised when there has already been a violation of criminal law. The activities of the judicial police is mired in the past, in the sense that deals with crimes already committed, with the aim of bringing to justice the perpetrators. The function of the judicial police is auxiliary to the function of the prosecutor, who is responsible for the prosecution. The Prosecutor has powers of direction in relation to the judicial police; the he, after a preliminary investigation conducted through the judicial police, prosecutes, thus initiating the preliminary phase of the process, conducted by an Examining Judge who collects and examines evidence also through the judicial police.
Officers of Judicial Police include Officials (up to Vicequestore) and top-level subofficers of the Republican Police Corps and the mayor of the municipalities where a police office is not established.
Agents of the judicial police include Enlisted of the Republican Police Corps. There are several exceptions and additions to these categories, but additional people are restricted to a specific area.
Officers of Judicial Police have the exclusive of certain functions, as delegated by the Judicial Authority: seizure of documents, securities, valuables and correspondence , interceptions and inspections of places, people and things. The Agents of Judicial Police may carry out, among other activities, the identification of the suspect, arrest in flagrante delicto, simply receiving spontaneous statements and the disclosure of crime to the public prosecutor.

Judicial Police services

The judicial police functions were held to addiction and under the direction of a judicial investigator. Concretely, the functions are carried out by the police, by the officials and judicial police officers belonging to the other organs and sections of the judicial police set up at each Prosecutor's Office and at each Pretura. It is a functional and not organic or structural dependence.
Sections of the judicial police depend on the magistrates who run the offices to which they are established. The officer in charge of the services of the judicial police is responsible to the relevant public prosecutor: Sections of the Judicial Police, considered as organic units, are subject to their respective Prosecutors. Officers and agents of judicial police are required to perform the tasks entrusted to them. Those belonging to the sections cannot be distracted by the activity of judicial police except for compelling circumstances and with permission of the Minister of Justice.
The Questure and the provincial commands of the GRdF communicate, by 31 December each year, to the Prosecutor General at the Court of Appeal, the name and the rank of the officer of the judicial police and financial police, who in the same office performs duties as director of the judicial police. The same organs also communicate to the Prosecutor General at the Court of Appeal the name and rank of the other officers and agents of judicial police who exercise the functions of judicial police under their respective leaders. The Prosecutor General at the Court of Appeal also receives communication of the judicial police services set up at the public prosecutors and in the Preture.
Communications must also be made to the Public Prosecutor for the of the judicial police services set up in the local court and those set up in the Preture; the Praetor receives communications for the services set up in his district.
Any change related to those officers and agents is notified by the competent administration. In particular, for removal from office, deprivation of the status of official or agent of judicial police affecting the chiefs of the judicial police services or promotion of the chiefs themselves, authorities upon which they depend must request in writing the consent of the Prosecutor General. He, in the shortest possible time, grants or denies the permission in writing. The denying permission for the promotion is communicated also to the affected chief of judicial police.

Pre-precautionary and public security measures

Public security measures are administrative acts aimed to prevent threats to the public security, safety, morality and decency. These measures are routinely enacted by the relevant Provincial Authority of Public Security. These measures are: Warning, Admonition, Special Surveillance, Forced Stay, Confinement.
The arrest and detention are, in the Italian trial system, measures to restrict personal freedom initiated by a body which is not a court - the judicial police and the prosecutor - and justified by reference to reasons of necessity and urgency.
In such cases it is possible proceed to the provisional restriction of freedom before the intervention of the judge. The measures are temporary and must be communicated to the relevant organ that, on pain of the annulment of the measure, must exercise the control function in answer, within tight deadlines, on the lawfulness of the measure. If a prosecutor has ordered the detention or the arrest, it must be approved by a court or a judge; if the judicial police proceeded to the arrest or detention the responsible of approval is the prosecutor.
Once executed the order of arrest or detention of a suspect of the crime, a series of tasks must be carried out by the judicial police:

• Immediate reporting to the prosecutor of the place where the person was arrested or stopped and the prosecutor who placed it, only if different from the prosecutor of the place in which it was materially executed;
• Warning to the arrested or detained of the right to appoint a defender;
• Transfer of the arrested or detained in jail as soon as possible but in no case more than forty-eight hours: by this act the subject is formally made ​​available to the prosecutor;
• Transmission of the record of arrest or detention within forty-eight hours of execution of the deed, the failure to meet the deadline, if the prosecutor has authorized an extension that can not exceed the ninety-six hours from arrest or detention, determines the ineffectiveness of the measure;
• Agree, even immediately, even in the barracks, the conversation between the defence lawyer and the arrested or detained, the prosecutor may differ by reasoned decree the subject's right to meet the defender; such deferment applies until the arrested or the detained is placed at the disposal of the judge.

The administrative measures such as the police warning, are also used with the aim of fix in a given place the supervised person, harness the people subject to these measures in a vicious cycle of violations, convictions, new measures and new violations that sometimes ends to shape the life of these people around a constant coming and going in and out of prison. Sometimes, the same police open spaces of negotiation, allowing the person freedom of movement in exchange for his commitment to keep police informed of their movements.

Police Warning

The Police Warning is a notice issued by the local police commander in which he warns people to change behaviour, warning them that, if not, the preventive measures can be adopted. The following categories of people may be subject to the Police Warning of the Quaestor:

• The usual idlers and vagabonds, valid at work;
• Those who are habitually and notoriously addicted to illicit trafficking;
• Those who are suspected of living with the proceeds of crimes or offences, or the aiding or who are prone to commit a crime;
• Those who are suspected of exploiting illegal prostitution, or trafficking in women, or corruption of minors, to exercise the contraband, or to sell or facilitate the use of fraudulently;
• Those who routinely perform other activities contrary to public morals and decency.

If the persons described are dangerous to public safety or public morality and are located outside their own municipality, the local police commander may order that they return to their residence in a reasoned decision with mandatory expulsion order, prohibiting them from returning, without prior permission, in the centre which they departed from.

Police Admonition

The admonition is a preventive measure for social defence against people dangerous for public security and public morality. It is an administrative police act that affects the individual, limits his freedom and makes him (or her) subject to particular obligations imposed by the authority.
One who is the object of admonition must find, in a short-term, work; must set firmly his residence and make it known, in the same period, to the local public security authority and cannot get away without prior notice; he cannot be associated to or attend sentenced or suspected persons, must respect the curfew, cannot go habitually in taverns or brothels, and cannot participate in public meetings. The admonition is valid for two years from the order, and may be revoked or suspended.
The following categories of persons are subject to the admonition:

• Usual idlers and vagabonds valid at work, which are not provided with the means of subsistence or suspected of living with the gains of criminal actions;
• Those who are suspected of exploiting illegal prostitution, or trafficking in women, or corruption of minors, to exercise the contraband, or to sell or facilitate the use of fraudulently;
• Habitual drug dealers;
• Drug addicts viewed as socially dangerous;
• Suspects of subversive activities;
• Those who are deemed dangerous to the state order;
• Perpetrators of the crimes of intentional fire, theft, robbery, extortion and blackmail, fraud, money forgery of and public credit abuse, embezzlement and handling stolen goods;
• Those found guilty of aiding and abetting of these crimes and crimes against the Empire and against public order;
• Perpetrators of crimes committed with weapons or explosives
• Those found guilty of aiding and abetting of crimes committed with weapons or explosives

The authority to pronounce the Admonition lies within a provincial administrative committee, composed of the Prefect or his delegate, which chairs, the local prosecutor and the local police commander or his delegate. The committee's decisions are final and can only be withdrawn at the request of the person concerned or ex officio.

Special surveillance

The special surveillance is a preventive measure. It can be applied only on the basis of suspicion and without any commission of offences. It is a more serious variant of the Police Admonition. It applies to persons who are considered hazardous for the security and the public morality and, in particular, to:

• Those who suspected of living with the gains of criminal actions;
• Those who are suspected of exploiting illegal prostitution, or trafficking in women, or corruption of minors, to exercise the contraband, or to sell or facilitate the use of fraudulently;
• Habitual drug dealers;
• Suspected of subversive activities;
• Those who are deemed dangerous to the state order;

The local police commander must verbally notify the person subject to special supervision, stating the reasons. Later, the commander issues a formal Police Warning. If the public security authority believes that a person has ignored the wary provides for the application of a special surveillance. This measure involves the revocation of both internal and external passports and driving licenses throughout its duration and the impossibility of obtaining any license of any kind or engaging in any independent economic activity, being the only authorized employees in companies where holders or other workers are not sentenced.
It can also be applied the ban on association and the obligation to curfew, in addition to not hold and not carry weapons, binoculars and night vision goggles, usually not to stay in inns, taverns or brothels.

Confinement

The confinement is a preventive measure proposed by the police authorities and imposed without the need for a trial and a conviction. Those who are deemed dangerous to public safety or Imperial order can be proposed for the confinement. Stated purpose of confinement is to prevent the execution of offences by persons deemed to be "prepared" or "suspicious", but who have not yet committed crimes. In particular, this measure affects the crime of association. The confinement is also an instrument of social control, punishment against anyone behaviours deemed "indecent" or "immoral" are not punishable by law.
The complaints made ​​by the police or by a subject are passed to the Ministry of Interior, which refers to a Commission. The Commission questions the reported and invites him to present justifications. If the Commission approves the proposed confinement, the subject was arrested and subsequently sent in the municipality chosen by the Ministry.

Forced Stay

The Forced Stay is an administrative measure, consisting in the obligation to live in a restricted location, established by the authorities, for a certain period of time (even a few years).

Arrest

The arrest is a measure restricting personal liberty that officers and agents of the judicial police take against those who are caught in flagrante delicto, that is, those who are caught in the act of committing the crime (proper flagrante), or chased after the offence, or surprised with things or tracks from which it appears that he has committed the crime immediately before (improper flagrante).

Flagrante delicto

The arrest in flagrante delicto may be mandatory or optional.
The arrest in flagrante delicto is mandatory:

• For intentional crimes, attempted or actual, punishable by imprisonment for life or imprisonment of not less than the minimum five and maximum of twenty years;
• For a series of intentional crimes, attempted or actual, that despite being punished with lower penalties, but cause widespread public alarm (eg, robbery, extortion, drug dealing, robbery or burglary).

The arrest in flagrante delicto is optional:

• in the presence of intentional criminal acts, attempted or consummated, punishable by a maximum imprisonment of three years,
• in the presence of a culpable offence punishable with imprisonment of not less than five years;
• in the presence of crimes that cause public alarm and whose maximum penalty is less than three years (eg. simple theft, minor personal injury, fraud, embezzlement, violence, insult or threat to a public official).

In any case, the judicial police can exercise the power to make an arrest when the measure is justified by the gravity of the fact or by the dangerousness of the person, taken from his personality or the circumstances of the fact.
If it comes to crimes prosecuted on complaint, the arrest in flagrante delicto is only possible if the complaint is lodged officer or agent of the judicial police present at the scene of the crime. If the plaintiff claims to withdraw the lawsuit, the arrested person must be immediately released.

Non-flagrante delicto

The arrest also out of the state of flagrante delicto is required in case of:

• Lack of departure within five days following the prefectorial decree of expulsion or unauthorized re-entry.
• Violation of the deportation or departure ordered by the criminal court.

The arrest also out of the state of flagrante delicto is allowed in the case of evasion and breach of rescue. It is forbidden to arrest if the driver stops and provides aid.
When for reasons of security and public safety it is not possible to proceed immediately to the arrest, the one who, on the basis of documentation from which emerges unequivocally the crime, appears author of resistance, violence, threat or injury to a public official, violence, aggravated damages, devastation, looting, is still considered in a state of flagrante delicto as long as the arrest is made ​​within ninety-six hours after the event.

Detention of a suspect of crime

The detention of a suspect of crime also operates out of the case of flagrante delicto when there are grounds to believe founded the danger of escape of the person seriously suspect in

• A crime for which the law prescribes life imprisonment or imprisonment of not less than five years
• A crime concerning military weapons and explosives
• A crime committed for the purpose of terrorism, including international terrorism, piracy or subversion.

In the classical case, the detention of suspect is an interim measure ordered by the public prosecutor owner of the investigation, but when he has not yet taken over the investigation, the police carry out the detention. The jurisdiction of the judicial police also exists when the prosecutor has already taken over the investigation but for reasons of urgency it is not possible to wait for the decision of the prosecutor.

Dualism of the police: the National Republican Guard and the Republican Police Corps

The dualism between GNR and Police and can be explained as that it duplicates the dualism between Fascism and the Government, not only institutionally, but also substantially.
The GNR refers more to Fascism, because of their being actual and effective part of the Militia, which, political armed force, heads not to the government, but to the Duce.
The Republican Police Corps, for its part, being only formally part of the armed forces, but actually depending on its General Directorate, then on the Ministry of the Interior, is also an institutional military hand of the government.
The contrast between organisms of Fascism and the organs of government acquires precise meanings.
The loyalty of the Guard to Fascism means that the weapon is the active force of the defence of Fascism par excellence. Loyalty to the institutions for the GNR becomes institutionalized loyalty to Fascism, and the loyalty to the state becomes the state loyalty to Fascism, and the fidelity to the law turns into loyalty immutability of the law. Among the National Republican Guards there is first of all the sublime aura of the Idea and its defence. Within cadres, especially higher, the GNR has perfectly mastered the rhetoric that accompanies it in its existence.
Within the Republican Police Corps and generally within Public Security, unlike the GNR, are the men to prevail over the organization. Public Security does not have the myth of itself, has no "prestige" to keep alive, and speaks of prestige reasoning in technical and efficiency terms.
In terms of self-representation, the pride of the Guard who thinks defending Fascism, matches the mutable pose of the policeman who knows protecting the power of the government.
The Republican Police, as part of the armed forces, observes laws and military regulations, like the Republican National Guard. Because of its dependence on a civil Ministry, and of presence at its top of the Corps of Officials, the same rules of conduct that are of within the GNR automatic application, in the Police they become a means of pressure and intimidation.
All other structural differences between the two forces descend from here.
The Republican National Guard is the body far more technically equipped to act as a mass crash at all times, thanks to the Battalions "M" and the five Divisions of the Legionary Corps, while Public Security is much less well armed, less rigidly centralized, with more appropriate means for dissolution of crowds and riots.
The Republican National Guard is the ideal tool to hold the supreme security of the State and Fascism. The GNR is used much less of Public Security, acting as a reserve for "special occasions".
The Republican National Guard has rhetoric is inherited by the police and by the Militia according to which each Guard is an ardent Fascist, square, maker of victories, the guardian of the Fascist homeland, slave only of duty, Latin proud virtue and bravery.
Neither the Republican Police Corps nor the whole Public Security administration have precise rhetoric beyond efficiency.

Central Security Office

The Central Security Office (it: "Ufficio Centrale di Sicurezza) is an organization subordinate to the Commandant General of the MVSN. The organization's stated duty is to fight all political enemies of the Fascist Regime. It is to note that the UCS is a functional body of the MVSN and is in charge of direction of particular services of autonomous bodies.
The UCS was created on 8 September 1946 through the merger of the various criminal intelligence agencies with the OVRA.
The organization controls the political security service of the OVRA. Its activities include intelligence-gathering, political-criminal investigation, overseeing foreigners, monitoring public opinion.
The UCS is divided into fourteen offices and Directorates:

• Personnel and Organization Office
• Administration, Law, and Finance Office
• Archives and Propaganda Office
  • Central Political Records
• OVRA Liaison office - Internal political surveillance
• OVRA Liaison office - External political surveillance
• OVRA Liaison office - Leaders protection
• GNR Liaison office - Internal Troops
• PS Liaison office - Political issues
• GRdF Liaison office - Financial issues
• Central Anti-drugs Directorate
• Central Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate
• Central Directorate for Personal Security
• General Inspectorate for action against terrorism
• Political Confinement Office
• Special Court for State Security

All central offices and directorates, with the exception of the liaison offices, are directed by MVSN officers with specific skills in that field; internal subdivisions of each Directorate - which constitute the hearth of the operational activities - are directed by senior officers (or officials) of all police and security organizations involved.

GNR Internal Troops

The internal troops are the main National Republican Guard force and they are functionally subordinated to the Central Security Office. They are used to support and reinforce the Public Security instrument, deal with large-scale crowd control, internal armed conflicts, maximum-security prison guard and safeguarding of highly-important facilities like nuclear power plants. During wartime, the GNR Internal Troops falls under Armed Forces command and fulfil the missions of local defence and rear area security.
Internal Troops belong to the National Republican Guard and consist of the 18 "M" Battalions, the "M" Marines Regiment "San Giorgio" and the special forces units. They are operationally directed by the Director General of the Central Security Office.

Central Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate

The Central Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (Direzione Centrale Investigativa Antimafia, Di.C.I.A.) is an investigative body, established in 1993 within the Central Security Office, with mono-functional competence, consisting of specialized personnel coming from all security and police forces, with the sole task of ensuring the application, in a coordinated manner, of preventive investigations relating to organized crime, as well as the subsidiary task of carrying out criminal investigations relating exclusively to Mafia. In particular, the preventive investigations are aimed at defining the structural mafia connotations and connections objectives and operating procedures, both at domestic and international level. The Directorate is the investigative arm of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, headed by the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor, who in turn depends on the Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation.
The Directorate is headed by a Director, selected in rotation among the Inspectors General (Rank V) of Public Security, the General Officers of the Republican Guard of Finance and the General Officers of the M.V.S.N. who have gained specific experience in the field of combating organized crime. For the exercise of its functions, the Director uses two Deputy Directors who are responsible, respectively, for overseeing operational activities and administrative ones. The central support structure is composed of:

• Cabinet Division;
• Department I - "Preventive Investigations"
• Department II - "Judicial Investigations"
• Department III - "International Relations"

The Di.C.I.A. also makes use of a peripheral system, structured on twelve Operational Centres and seven Detached Sections that, through a clearly defined boundary system, have jurisdiction over the entire national territory.

Central Directorate for Personal Security

The entity responsible for the personal security is the Minister of the Interior, who performs his functions by the Central Security Office. In turn, the internal structure is the Central Directorate for Personal Security (Italian: Direzione Centrale per la Sicurezza Personale, Di.Ce.S.P.).
Its functional area of responsibility relates to the preservation and protection of eminent persons (both for institutional and political reasons) both domestic and foreign, as well as persons who are subject to hazards or threats, in the person of his or her family. Outside of the high political personalities, the dangers which the Central Directorate must respond to are of a terrorist nature or related to organized crime, drug trafficking, arms trafficking or radioactive material trafficking. Finally, the Central Directorate is responsible to avoid the dangers related to activities of foreign intelligence. The Central Directorate may also adopt measures to arrange flights to ensure the safety of the leading figures or other persons subject to dangers or threats.
The special tasks of the Central Directorate include the collection and analysis of all the information related to personal situations at risk that OVRA, the Military Information Service, the judiciary, the police and security forces and the Militia are required to provide, taking care also connections with the provincial offices. The Directorate also deals with the services and personnel strategic and operational planning, technical training of personnel employed in the security services and the check of the special tools used for protection services and their supervision. Finally, the Central Directorate also provides the activation of the procedures of emergency.
The Central Directorate is a partial exception to the general leadership and composition rule: it is headed by a Prefect of 2nd Class, a Major General of the Republican Police Corps or a Consul General of the MVSN. The head-quarters personnel can be assigned to the Central Directorate from all State administrations and corps, from all security forces, both Party and State ones, while the security services and surveillance are carried out from specialized offices and units of Public Security or the Militia.
For reasons of exceptional and temporary nature, drivers of vehicles in use at high personalities may be granted the powers and the functions of Agent of Public Security, in order to allow the performance of a more effective action to prevent and protect the life of these personalities. Drivers appointed Agents of Public Security are allowed to use in vehicles conducted siren and revolving blue light beacon.

Central Advisory Commission

The Central Advisory Commission (It: Commissione Consultiva Centrale) is a body of the Central Directorate; the Commission, at the request of the Director, provides its opinion on the adoption, modification and revocation of protection measures and surveillance, as well as on all other matters, related to measures of protection and supervision, that the Director deems to submit.
The Central Directorate uses the Commission for the adoption of protective and supervision measures. The Commission is chaired by the Director of the Central Directorate itself, and is composed of one representative from each of the police forces involved, a representative of the OVRA, a representative of the Militia, a representative of the Military Information Service, and three representatives of the National Fascist Party.

Peripheral organization

Any measure taken by the Director is communicated to the Prefect and Quaestor of the province affected by the execution of the decision adopted. In every Prefecture, as part of the Sixth Division, operates the Provincial Office for Personal Security, responsible for collection and preliminary analysis of information related to personal situations at risk, as well as information connections with the Central Directorate. The Office makes use of the police forces in the province (Public Security and others), MVSN and officers specifically designated and appointed. The Prefect convenes and presides special coordination meetings, with the participation of the Quaestor, the commanders of the other police forces that may be present in the Province, the MVSN Commander and the official in charge of the Office for Personal Security. It can also be called on the Federal Secretary of the PNF.
The Prefect, relying upon data collected and coordination meetings, makes recommendations to the Central Directorate.

Special Court for State Security

The Special Court for State Security (It: Tribunale Speciale per la Sicurezza dello Stato) is a special court of the Fascist Regime, competent to judge crimes against the security of the state and the regime, in order to conciliate security needs and respect of the rule of law. The Special Court is responsible for the punishment of a series of offences "against state security" and the reconstruction of dissolved associations, organizations or parties, anti-national propaganda activities abroad, terrorism, theft of public money and possession of explosives, if it is linked to a political reason. In war, the Special Court has other fields of jurisdiction, such as treason, espionage, fraud and breach of military supplies, or political offences such as association or subversive or anti-national propaganda committed by the military.
The state security courts (Courts+Presidency Council) is fully part of the regular court system. The Special Court as a whole has the power to warn, admonish, and convict the political defendants deemed dangerous to public order and security of the Regime: the Special Court operates according to the rules of the Military Penal Code of War.
The defence is only allowed after the indictment and the accused may be assisted by one defender, chosen from among the officers on duty at the court or among lawyers exercising their profession. However, the Sectional President at the request of the prosecutor can exclude the assistance of non-military defence, in cases where it deems it necessary for the public interest. In the proceedings before the Special Court is not allowed bail.
The right to appeal a conviction in state security courts is limited to procedural grounds and with special limitations. Against its judgements, the appeal to the Presidency Council is allowed within thirty days from the publication of the case motivations; against President Council decisions, appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation is allowed only under special circumstances.

Composition

The Court is unique throughout the state, but operates in five sections. Each Section consists of:

• A President, chosen among the general officers of the National Republican Army, National Republican Navy, National Republican Air Force, Republican Police Corps and the Voluntary Militia for National Security, in permanent active duty and with proved competence in legal matters;
• Five judges, chosen among officers of the MVSN having the rank of Consul in permanent active duty and with proved competence in legal matters;
• An Amicus Curiae, without voting rights, chosen among the staff of military justice.

The Presidency Council (Consiglio di Presidenza) consists of the Prime President, appointed by the Duce of the Republic, and of all five sectional Presidents.

Administration of Public Security

The National Flag of the Republican Police Corps and of the whole Directorate General of Public Security.

The overall direction of the public security services is assigned to the Prefects appointed by the government (both at the top of the Directorate General and locally, in the provincial governments), but responsibility for the execution of the service is entrusted to civilian officials of public security, and finally the executive service is entrusted to a military corps. Therefore, the technical part of the administration of public security is the most important, although Prefects still retain a significant influence and guidance positions.
The Prefect is the highest authority of Public Security in the provinces and, with regard to the functions of the police, he may adopt the necessary measures for the protection of public order and public security. Prefects have functional superiority, besides being higher in rank, compared to the officials of Public Security. They, however, unlike Prefects, are policemen to all intents and purposes, whose shoulders the direction of public security services rests on. The Quaestor exercises the technical direction of all police services and public order in the provincial constituency. He belongs to the civilian personnel of Public Security.
In carrying out their activities the Quaestor and other civilian officials of Public Security are assisted by military personnel of the Republican Police Corps, which is under the Ministry of Interior and part of the armed forces of the state, therefore being subject to the military law of peace and war, and, in the case of violations, judged by military courts.
Each of the three components (Prefects, Officials, Military) follows its own rules of reference with regard to disciplinary measures, professional training, remuneration and career prospects. The civilian components (especially the Prefect Corps) are favoured, while the military component, except for the officers, is the most disadvantaged.
As of 2013, the overall strength of the Administration of Public Security is 232,483, excluding provincial Prefects and other support organizations, but including support personnel.

Directorate General of Public Security

In Italy, the Ministry of the Interior provides for the protection of public security. Under the direct dependence of the Ministry there is the Directorate-General of Public Security, central governing body comprising all police services, both preventive and repressive ones; both Civil Administration of the Interior officials and personnel (for strictly non police-related duties) and Public Security officials are assigned to the Directorate General.
The Directorate General of Public Security mainly deals with non-political crime (although there are departments which deal with politically oriented offences), public order and general police duties. In particular, offices of the Directorate-General oversee services related to the maintenance of public order and public safety, prevention and repression of crime, for the protection of public security, the protection of public morality and decency, supervision the border and the transportation police.

Officials of Public Security

In Italy, the police are made up of both civilian and military personnel. Civilian personnel consists of public security officials and agents, depending on the Ministry of the Interior.
The career of public security personnel is regulated, as well as by the general provisions on the organization of hierarchical government of the state and the law on the legal status of the clerks of the state. According to these regulations, the personnel of the administration of public security is divided into two categories:

• A Group personnel, public security officials;
• C Group personnel, employees of police and order employees.

Ranks in the career of public security officers are as follows in descending order: Director General, Inspector General, Quaestor (1st and 2nd class), Deputy Quaestor, Chief Commissioner, Commissioner, Additional Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Additional Deputy Commissioner. Officers of Public Security, up to Deputy Quaestor, are also Officers of Judicial Police.
Candidates for a career of public security officers access through a competitive examination. Winners can, however, achieve the initial level only after a trial period, during which they must participate in a training course at the police school and pass a theoretical and practical examination on the course program. In each competition, up to a third of the posts available is reserved to the troops and Subofficers of the Republican Police Corps, provided they have gained the educational requisites. This passage is widely encouraged as a career advancement and a personal betterment opportunity.
The staff of the C-Group is divided into:

• Employees of Police, which assist the public security officials in dealing with the affairs of administrative police, but keeping a non decisional role;
• Order employees, who are engaged in keeping of archives, records, as well as copy jobs and facility general support.

All civilian personnel must be enrolled in the National Fascist Party in order to have access even to admission public competitions.

Commissioners Category

Public Security Officials ranking Additional Deputy Commissioner of Public Security, Deputy Commissioner of P.S., Commissioner of P.S., Chief Commissioner of P.S. and Deputy Quaestor are framed within the Commissioners Category (Categoria Commissari). Such Officials have functions of both public security and judicial police; they direct offices involving a responsible professional contribution and independent decision in the context of issued orders.
Additional Deputy Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and Commissioners all apply such functions in collaboration with the directors of the offices and departments to which they are attached. Commissioners may be appointed director of offices or departments, with the related responsibilities about the orders received and the results achieved. In case of absence or inability of the director, Deputy Commissioners and Commissioners replace him. Chief Commissioners and Deputy Quaestors also have duties towards more organic units, within the office or department which they are attached. They can also be appointed directors of offices or departments not strictly reserved for the personnel of higher rank, with full responsibility. These two ranks are immediate collaborators of the Directors of Public Security, and they can replace them in the event of absence or impediment.

Directors Category

Public Security Officials ranking Quaestor, 2nd Class, Inspector General/Quaestor, 1st Class, Director General of P.S. and Director General of P.S., 1st Class are framed within the Directors Category (Categoria Dirigenti). Such officials are Officers of Public Security, but not Officers of Judicial Police. In addition to the direction of offices or departments of particular relevance, Directors of the Administration of Public Security also perform inspection tasks. Quaestors, 2nd Class who are not Deputy Quaestors (i.e. who are not Vicars of the Quaestors) are also Officers of Judicial Police.

Central organization of P.S.

The Directorate General of P.S. is headed by the Chief of Police - Director General of P.S. and it is organized into a Secretariat, three Inspectorates General and 16 Divisions:

• General Inspectorate for Public Security at the Duce of the Republic
• General Inspectorate of Public Security at the Vatican
• General Inspectorate for Public Security at the Ministry of the Interior
• Special Secretariat of Public Security
• Division I - General and Legislative Affairs, Legislation and documentation
• Division II - Confidential Affairs
• Division III - Personnel of Public Security and Litigation - the Division administers the public security civilian personnel (officials of P.S., employees, ushers) and provides legal support;
• Division IV - Police Schools
  • Higher Police School, which is responsible for the technical training of the student public security officials;
  • Academy of Public Security, for the preparation of the Republican Police Corps officers: the Academy educates officers who do not learn only the traditional military education but also a solid grounding in various police fields such as forensic and criminology.
  • Two police schools of Rome and Caserta for the preparation of sub-officers and agents of public security;
• Division V - Administrative and Social Police, which deals with the study and use of the most effective means to avert disruption of social and legal order: the Division also deals with the superintendence on administrative departments of public security provincial and sub-provincial offices;
  • Anti-Cults Section
  • Explosives Office
  • Local Police and Citizens Office
• Division VI - Criminal Police, in charge of liability ascertainment and consequent punishment of the criminal, when, despite the adoption of the means of prevention, the injury of legal-social order has taken place (judicial police);
  • National Coordination Centre of criminal police operations
• Division VII - Political Police
• Division VIII - Border Police: the MVSN is present on the front lines of the border, while in the back line service is entrusted to the Public Security. The general management is matter for Public Security, but the Militia, in addition to border watch, is responsible for the surveillance and supervision policy.
• Division IX - Transportation Police;
• Division X - Scientific Police and Forensics
• Division XI - Contracts and supplies management;
• Division XII - Police barracking;
• Division XIII - Technical Services and Telecommunications and Post Police;
• Division XIV - Motorization;
• Division XV - Police Health Service
• Division XVI - Social Assistance;
• Inspectorate General of the Republican Police Corps;
• Inspectorate General of Accountancy.
• Inspectorate General for the General Affairs

Division I - General Affairs

The Division I - General Affairs (It.: Divisione I - Affari Generali, D.AA.GG. or more frequently DAG) is the Division that, directly dependent on the Chief of Police, exercises functions of general support, coordination between divisions and of performing special and confidential tasks. The Division is divided into seven Sections, led by a Prefect who carries also the title of Head of the Secretariat of the Director General:

• Section I - General Affairs and Personnel;
• Section II - Analysis, Planning and Documentation;
• Section III - Subversive Movement and Public Order (liaison with the Central Security Office);
• Section IV - Technology Improvement;
• Section V - Public Security Informatics;
• Section VI - Personnel Assistance;
• Section VII Studies and Legislation;
• Section VIII - External Relations and Ceremonial

Section I - General Affairs and Personnel

The Section of General Affairs and Personnel has jurisdiction in internal general affairs, support to general administration and coordination for the implementation of programs and projects related to the direct responsibility of the Head of the Secretariat (Secretariat Office). In addition, the Section manages the issues personnel of the prefectorial career and personnel of the civil administration of the Interiors assigned to the Directorate General of Public Security (External Personnel Office).
In order to perform this task, it monitors the personnel needs of the central offices, and liaises with the National Fascist Party and with the Directorate General for the General Affairs and Personnel (Analysis Office). The Section also assigns the Public Security personnel (both civil and military ones) and Civil Administration members to the central offices of the Directorate General (Central transfers Office). Finally, it manages access permits to the Viminale building and data related to the Public Security personnel assigned to the Directorate General (Viminale Office).
The Section is led by a Vice-Prefect, while Offices are directed by Quaestors, 2nd class and by a Vice-Prefect Inspector (civilian and prefectorial personnel office).

Section II - Analysis, Planning and Documentation

The Section of Analysis, Planning and Documentation has jurisdiction in support to the Head of the Secretariat for the planning and the definition of the objectives and programs and the coordination of the activities of the offices of the Directorate General, as well as internal coordination. The Section main task is the analysis, advice and fitting information. In addition to this task, the Office prepares the records and documents to the National Committee of Order and Public Security, carries out the activities of the security secretariat and technical advice on issues relating to classified documents.
The Section also oversees the functioning of the archives of the Questure and manages the acquisition, monitoring and management of internal and external information related to order and public security. In this sense, the Section directs the "Situations Centre"", in turn tasked with the management of all important peripheral news, and the Disaster Victims Identifications Group.
The Section is directed by an Inspector General, and the individual offices are all headed by Quaestors, 2nd class.

Section III - Public Order

The Section of Public Order one of the most important offices within the Special Secretariat of Public Security (and even within the whole Directorate General of Public Security), because it deals with the top-level management of public order services, mainly on sensitive occasions. The Section is connected with the Central Security Office, with the Prefectures and the Questure for the management of public order on the occasion of important events, including rallies, demonstrations and other mass events, both events organized by the Regime and non-authorized events. The Section of Public Order is therefore the organ which is responsible for the deployment and the centralized direction and management of the Celere units, of the other non-territorial units of the Republican Police Corps, of the forces of the Voluntary Militia for National Security and of the Republican National Guard units for both public order and rescue operations in case of public calamities. The Office is also responsible for the oversight of the objectives of public interest and of diplomatic and service of security for foreign dignitaries temporarily visiting in Italy.
The Section of Public Order, directed by an Inspector General, is further divided into three Offices:

• Office I - General Affairs: The Office supports the Director of the Office shall prepare guidelines on the management of events and provisions for the use of mobile forces. To achieve this, it plans reinforcements of the mobile units of the police and security forces for public order services or for rescue operations, assigning directly to the Provincial Authorities of Public Security any special units (canine units, mounted units, bomb disposal units, naval squads, divers and snipers and sharpshooters) and decides on any temporary aggregations of personnel of the Republican Police Corps for such services. With regard to other police forces, it requires such special units to the relevant Commands. The Office also monitors and analyses events and other events relevant to public order, prepares the daily reports and produces statistical analysis. The Office is directed by a Colonel of the Republican Police Corps.
• Office II - Official Events, Surveillance and Emergency: Office II is in charge of official events attended by the most important State and the Party leaders. In addition, it deals with the most critical situations and with surveillance operations. Therefore, it prepares guidelines on public order services on the occasion of such events, as it is responsible for the preparation of guidelines for the visits of foreign dignitaries in Italy. As regards the surveillance and emergency preparation activities, the Sector prepares the appropriate directives and emergency planning and crisis management that require the intervention of the Armed Forces. Finally, it is responsible for participation in exercises and international working groups for cooperation activities in the field of public security. It is directed by a Quaestor, 2nd class.
• Office III - Sports Violence: the 3rd Sector is responsible for the management of sports violence. Therefore, it mainly carries out studies and research for the prevention of violence in sport, performing a dynamic analysis of the illegality related to sporting events and establish the guidelines that result. The sector therefore takes the relations with the government's national and international sporting and other organs of the whole Directorate General for the coordination of law enforcement activities. Finally, the Office is responsible for the course material for the training and retraining of personnel in the field of public order. The Office is led by a Colonel of the Republican Police Corps.

Division II - Confidential Affairs

The Confidential Affairs Division (It: Divisione Affari Riservati, D.AA.RR. or more commonly D.A.R.) is a central office of the Directorate-General of Public Security. This Division deals with domestic intelligence and political police functions. Differently from Political Police Division, the D.AA.RR. is a pure intelligence-oriented internal organization officially restricted to dealing with information, while the Division VII is an overt security apparatus and has operational roles. The leadership of the Confidential Affairs Division is usually given to a trusted senior police official, who is promoted to the Prefect rank for the specific purpose.
The Division is divided into six Offices and a central political database (Casellario Politico Centrale). Clandestine provincial teams are directly employed by the Confidential Affairs Division, which also uses the "Foreigners Surveillance Offices" framed within Questure.
The D.A.R. organization is based on functional criteria and includes six Sections and a Central Political Database (It: Casellario Politico Centrale, CPC)

• Section I: Public security preventive measures, concentration camps, confinement colonies, relations with Political Police;
• Section II: Peripheral teams co-ordination, money laundering and smuggling, urgent and confidential information service, complaints against government and Party important persons;
• Section III: Informers accountancy and confinement colonies management;
• Section IV: Technical support and tapping support;
• Section V: Leftist and subversive activity analysis, terrorism within the Italian Empire;
• Section VI: Liberal and aversive organizations and separatist activity analysis, international terrorism;
• Central political database.

The chief of Section II is the most important man within the Division, because he manages all information notes and sends them to the relevant Section or Office; moreover, when he receives information about the scandals of high-level personalities, although news of crime, these are forwarded in the form of confidential note, through the Chief of Police, to the Minister of the Interior which assesses whether or not to proceed. For news of crime of another type, the note is forwarded to the Political Police Division, which in turn forwards the note to the Political Office responsible for the area and this Office signs the judicial report without giving act of the memo information.
The clandestine peripheral facilities of the Division are usually arranged in the central boroughs, hidden among many other commercial activities and within the walls of anonymous buildings, which usually arise near important government buildings. They have offices or apartments specifically chosen to be easily accessible, often protected by a doorkeeper who knows everything and who pretends nothing. Usually, peripheral team hide behind the banner of fictitious insurance agencies or non-existent think tanks, cultural associations, institutions of cooperation or import-export companies. On the bell is written the initials of one of the many cover companies.
During the operational activities, the agents of the peripheral teams do not wear uniforms, they do not have official vehicles and do not carry weapons; they just try to look inconspicuous, while seeming mere employees who every day go to the office, and in the same time to look deeply where they have to look.

Division III - Personnel of Public Security and Litigation

The P.S. Personnel Division directly manages the civilian public security and issue guidelines for the management of the Police Force Republican. In particular, the Division issues guidelines on aspects regulated directions concerning the employment relationship and performs studies and counselling, manages the recruitment and internal selection procedures, deals with the procedures and events that affect the legal and economic status of the personnel, as well as with issues related to pensions and social security and takes care of litigation related to these activities, supporting the relevant bodies and offices.
The Division is one among the most important Divisions of the Directorate General and, given the large sums at its disposal, is frequently targeted by surveys, inspections, audits and investigations.
Due to its peculiar and dual nature, being a support Division and not an operational one, the structure is organized on seven Sections directly dependant on the Head of Division (a Prefect, 2nd Class), and on a Military Personnel Service (Servizio Personale Militare), headed by a CPR Brigadier General, in charge of military personnel. In turn, the Brigadier General reports to both the General Inspector - Inspector General of the Corps and to the head of Division III.

Section I - General Affairs and Legal Affairs

Section I deals with the planning, design and implementation of programs and objectives related to personnel matters. The Section coordinates the activities of the other offices of the Division and contributes to the planning of the staffing of regional offices. It also manages the authorization procedures for recruitment of personnel. and prepares the opinions as to provide, the necessary administrative and regulatory norms concerning personnel issues. The consultancy is provided to all the other bodies of the Division, as well as the central and local offices of the Administration of Public Security.
Section I is subdivided into six Offices: Planning, Coordination, Territorial Offices, Competitions, Consulting and Regulations Offices.

Section II - Litigation

Section II deals with the discussion of judicial remedies with respect to the employment relationship in the fields of Legal Status, Courses, Competitions, Abusive Transfers, Disciplinary Proceedings, Social Security Claims, Compensation, and other issues. It also handles requests for legal protection for acts committed in service. Section II is subdivided into ten offices: eight of them are dedicated to litigation against the personnel of the Administration of Public Security, and two offices are dedicated to the requests for legal protection made by members of the Administration of Public Security (both civilian and military ones) and by members of the Republican Guard of Finance.

Section III - Access Competitions

Section III deals with the management of the competitions of the civilian staff of the Administration of Public Security. The Section is responsible for the decision of the requirements of the candidates, announcements of competitions and contests management themselves. With regard to military personnel, the Section is responsible for providing advice and support, but it is not directly involved.
The Section is subdivided into four offices: A-Group Personnel Office, C-Group Personnel Office, Documentation and Counselling Office and Informatics Management Office.

Section IV - Aptitude Selection

Section IV deals mainly with aptitude requirements of candidates to competitions for access to the administration of Public Security and aptitude requirements of the employees who aspire to be assigned to particular sectors. The section also deals with the assessment of aptitude with regard readmissions service. The Section is subdivided into six functional offices, each dealing with a single step of the aptitudinal assessment.

Section V - Officials Administration

Section V is responsible for the administration of civilian officials who belong to the Administration of Public Security and of their careers. The Section deals with the legal status of career advancement, transfer and discipline related to such personnel; it also examines and decide on authorizations of offices outside work and especially on the rewards and decides on awards.
The Section is subdivided into five offices, each covering an individual sector; all offices include a Central Commission and five Interregional Commissions, which are tasked with the examination and preliminary decision about the individual cases. All the Interregional Commissions are framed within the Interregional Directorates, Personnel Division.

Division IV - Police Schools

The Division of Police Schools and Training Institutes deals with training of both civilian officials and military personnel of all ranks. The task is particularly delicate because the upper echelons are deliberately differentiated and the Division has to amalgamate and create an unique esprit de corps.
Civilian students consist of graduate personnel who attend a 9-months course at the Higher Police Schools, in order to achieve the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Public Security; in addition, there are also high-school graduate civilian students and Marshals who attend the 4-years Special Course of the Academy of Public Security (Corso Speciale dell'Accademia di Pubblica Sicurezza), in order to obtain a Law degree graduation and achieve, after two years, the rank of Additional Deputy Commissioner of Public Security. Marshals who are discharged from the Republican Police Corps and promoted to the rank of Additional Deputy Commissioner of P.S. are often directly employed in a 1-year long period consisting of both operational and study activity.
Alongside the training to become a civilian official, the Division deals with the military training of the CPR; this functional area includes the Regular Course of the Academy of Public Security (Corso Regolare dell'Accademia di Pubblica Sicurezza), which trains officer cadets, the Sub-Officers School (Scuola Sottufficiali) and the Agents Training Centre (Centro Addestramento Agenti).

Specialization schools

The Public Security apparatus has several specialization schools and centres; as a rule, these schools are handled and operated by Division IV - Police Schools, although a few (especially the transportation service schools) are managed by the relevant Division. Often such schools and training centres train and educate also personnel coming from the Army, the GRdF and the MVSN.

• Nautical and Diving Centre (Centro Nautico e Sommozzatori)
• Aircraft Pilots Training School (Scuola di Addestramento per piloti di aereo)
• Helicopter Pilots Training School (Scuola di Addestramento per piloti di elicottero)
• Air Specialists Training School (Scuola di Addestramento per specialisti di bordo)
• Mechanic Maintenance Training School (Scuola di Addestramento per meccanico e manutentore)
• Alpine Police School (Scuola di Polizia Alpina)
• School of Judicial, Administrative and Investigative Police (Scuola di Polizia Giudiziaria, Amministrativa e Investigativa, Pol.G.A.I.), where personnel is trained in the core matters

Division V - Administrative and Social Police

The Division of Administrative and Social Police deals with the study and use of the most effective means to avert disruption of social and legal order: the Division also deals with the superintendence and general guidance on administrative departments of public security provincial and sub-provincial offices, as well as on local police corps. The Division is also responsible to provide bureaucratic support to peripheral authorities. It is one of the most important subdivisions of the Directorate General of Public Security and, to deal with its tasks, the Division consists of three Sections and some independent Offices:

• Section I - Licenses: weapon sell, depot and importation regulation, public establishment control. This Section contains the Explosives Office;
• Section II - Urban and rural regulations;
• Section III - Citizens mobility: emigration, passports issuance, forced stays ans special surveillance.
• Section IV - Cults: foreign and original cults surveillance, tracking down of magicians and frauds. The Section IV - Cults is subdivided into five operational Offices, which deal with the fight against cults according a thematic pattern: Satanic Cults Office, European Cults Office, Asiatic Cults Office, Islamic Cults Office and Christian-derived Cults Office.

Division VI - Criminal Police

The Division of Criminal Police is the cornerstone office of the Directorate General of Public Security, being responsible for the coordination of investigations of police at the national level, with particular reference to the search and capture most dangerous fugitives and mafia-type criminal organizations, the crime-related information collection and analysis.
The Division is responsible for international cooperation in the fight against organized crime (drug trafficking, money laundering, trafficking in motor vehicles, counterfeiting, computer crime and environmental crime). The Division also manages and coordinates the collaborators of justice at the national level interventions related to the action of general prevention and control of the territory.
In order to fulfil its tasks, the Criminal Police Division has a number of Sections, Offices and other internal articulations, including the International Criminal Police Central Office (Ufficio centrale di polizia criminale internazionale, also known as "Interpol Italia").
The Division of Criminal Police is subdivided into three independent Offices and four Sections; offices directly dependent on the Chief of the Division are directed by Quaestors, 2nd Class, while Sections are led by Inspectors General.

• Office of General Affairs;
• Office of Legal Affairs;
• International Criminal Police Central Office;
• Central Protection Section;
• Crime Analysis Section;
• Central Operational Section;
• Territory Control Section.

Protection Section

The Central Protection Section (Sezione Centrale di Protezione, S.C.P.) implements special programs of protection and assistance to witnesses and other protected persons. The assistance programs include reintegration into social and working context. The Section also maintains relations with the Judicial bodies and Public Security peripheral organs, as well as with all the other ministries involved in the implementation of protective measures. The Section has as its own support structure 11 Inter-Provincial Operational Offices. The Section in turn consists of 5 Offices, led by Quaestors, 2nd Class: General Affairs, Psychological support, Witnesses, Collaborators of Justice and Special and Temporary Programs.

Crime Analysis Section

The Crime Analysis Section (Sezione Analisi Criminale, S.A.C.) is the centre for the coordination of anti-crime information and strategic analysis on criminal phenomena. The section is divided into eight Offices and operates in constant relationship with other bodies of the Directorate General of Public Security and other police forces.
Offices, led by Quaestors, 2nd Class, subordinated to the Sections are: Strategic Crime Analysis Office, Strategic Studies Office, Methodology Office, Criminal Behaviour Analysis Office, Archives Office, Statistical Analysis Office, External Relations Office and Support Office.

Central Operational Section

The Central Operational Section (Sezione Centrale Operativa, S.C.O.) is the top body for the police investigation at the national level. It is engaged in the fight against organized crime, including the infiltration into sectors of the national economy. The SCO is the primary point of reference for both INTERPOL and EUROPOL and for the criminal responsibilities of the Central Security Office (i.e. Anti-Mafia and Anti-Drugs Directorates); the area of intervention concerns investigations in a coordinated manner, with direct participation, in the most serious criminal phenomena and the development of operational analysis and consequent strategies to combat it. The Section is divided into nine offices: Fugitives Office, Investigations Support Office, Organized crime and Narcotics Office, Human exploitation office, Common crime Office, Unsolved Crimes Office, Technical Support Office and Analysis Office.
The Central Operational Section relies also on the 21 Criminal Police Centres within the Regional Offices of Public Security; these Centres depend functionally, technically and hierarchically on the SCO, which is the main body which the prosecutions delegate for investigations against organized crime. The counterpart of the Republican Guard of Finance is the Central Service for Investigations against Organized Crime.

Territorial Control Section

The Territorial Control Section (Sezione Controllo del Territorio, S.C.T.) identifies and develops strategies for general prevention and control of territory. In addition, it directs the use of all resources allocated to prevention, at both central and peripheral levels. The Territory Control Section deals with central management tasks, ensuring the monitoring of the various territorial instruments. For these needs, the Section makes a constant study, research and even international interchange.
The Crime Prevention Units depend directly on the Territorial Control Section, which plans to use them, and makes them available to the various Questure. The use of the 19 Crime Prevention Units (commanded each by a CPR Lieutenant Colonel) is planned by the Territorial Control Section in relation to the demands of the Quaestors, particularly when local resources are not sufficient.
Offices General Prevention and Public Assistance are organically inserted into Questure and direct the work of the car patrols and the borough police.

Division VII - Political Police

The tasks assigned to the Division VII - Political Police consist in the investigation and suppression of anti-fascist movement, with particular attention to the communist organization. Due to the sensitivity of the task assigned, due to the fact that the Division VII represents half of the civilian State intelligence, and due to the fact that the Confidential Affairs Division is almost always held by a senior police official promoted to the rank of Prefect, 1st class, the Division VII - Political Police is led, as a general rule, by a senior and highly trusted Prefect who comes from the peripheral administration and by diverse administration experiences. This makes the appointment to lead the Political Police an highly coveted award and acknowledgement to the career: no political bargain is made for the Political Police, and its directors are among Duce's most trusted men.
The interrogation methods used by the special, small interrogation teams framed in central offices of Political Police are known to be though and sometimes brutal: serious injury and death have to be avoided, and interrogators have to hurt arrested people without leaving a mark.
Political Police is the first-line civilian internal intelligence of the fascist police system, mainly dealing with the collection and analysis of information through the use of informers, spies infiltrated in many different areas of society, not only in the rooms directly anti-fascists but also in Regime-controlled contexts, such as public administration, printing, entertainment, etc. Differently from Confidential Affair Division, the seventh Division has a more decentralized focus, while still stepping in when the phenomena grow up beyond the local context. Informants of the Political Police are paid through the fund of political investigation.
As statute, the Division VII- Political Police consists of nine subdivisions: a General Affairs and Personnel Section, charged with overall direction and management, a Security Secretariat, a Divisional Political Files Cabinet (Casellario Politico di Divisione) and seven operational Sections.
These seven operational Sections are grouped into two intermediate Services, which group together similar Sections, in order to ease joint working and analysis. The Services are the Political Opposition Service, which groups Sections I, II and III, and the State Security Service, which groups Sections IV, V and VI. Section VII (General Intelligence) and the Divisional File Cabinet are outside the two Services. While such "Services" are directed by senior officials who have the same rank of the Section heads, they are kept distinct and they retain functional authority over them.

• Section I - Liberal activities ad home and abroad: the Section is responsible to counter the liberal anti-fascist activities, as well as to detect subversive plots originating in Western Europe, the U.S., British and French colonies and North Africa, if they are directed both to the homeland or to the Autonomous Republic;
• Section II - Politically sensitive offences: the Section deal with subversive plots or criminal activities if they originate in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as with, on a purely domestic front, issues of dissent which is not directed from abroad, smuggling of currency, anti-fascist trade unions and political personalities; it also keeps an eye on cults deemed dangerous, although this is primary focus of the Administrative Police.
• Section III - Leftist and Communist subversives;
• Section IV - Anti-Terrorism: the Anti-Terrorism Section deals with all the phenomena of contrast to the domestic and international terrorism. It is not a judicial police service, so does not take, on an ongoing basis, tasks for the judicial authority. The Section coordinates and boost counter-terrorism sections of the local Political Offices. The Section is also a terminal of the whole information flow of national and international intelligence, as well as of the police investigations. The hub function assigned to Section IV in anti-terrorism matters makes it the police "spearhead" and the main interface of other non-intelligence police bodies.
• Section V - International Terrorism and Foreigners associations: the Section carries out surveillance tasks over foreigners associations (both Imperial and non-Imperial people) in order to counter international terrorism in its cradle. Originally being a mere subsection of Section IV, the Section maintains a close work relationship with the Section IV - Anti-Terrorism, and they often form joint working groups.
• Section VI - State Security: it carries out investigations directly, or assists, directing them, those investigations carried out by other police departments for crimes against the State, of anarchist nature or against loyalty to Fascism, assisting and complementing the activities of the peripheral bodies. The Section can also claim for itself the investigations when it considers it necessary or when it is requested by the State Security Prosecution; the State Security Court relies on this Section for judicial police duties.
• Section VII - General Intelligence
• Divisional File Cabinet

Divisional File Cabinet

The Division has placed under its own a Divisional File Cabinet, in order to achieve operational autonomy from OVRA. The Cabinet is operated by an autonomous computer system, and it is functionally subdivided into three parts:

• an archive where all documents are inventoried according object, for example in antifascist groups and movements;
• a personal archive format consisting of files relating to personalities;
• an informants archive made up of files, each dedicated to an individual trustee and its activities.

Each informant recruited by the Political Police is assigned a number and a code name, such as spy "John Smith" has the number "543" and the code name of "Caesar", the number also distinguishes the informant's personal file. The informants activities consist mainly of the preparation of information reports about the subject or the subject watched. These reports are then to be sent to conventional address prepared for reception by the Division.
Upon receipt of the reports, the Copy Office produces three copies of each document. Of these three copies one is communicated to the Chief of Police, who decides which transmit daily to the Duce, another copy is sent to both the Central Security Office and the Confidential Affairs Division, and the third is assigned by the chief of Political police, according to the specific content of the report, to the official in charge for that field. Once acquired the single report, the practice follows the criterion for sorting groups of competence.

Political Office

At the peripheral level, within each Questura, there is a Political Office. The provincial Political Office (which has further subdivisions in Detached Commissariats) is entrusted of a variety of functions, which include the collection of information about the overall situation, including for the prevention of public order breaking, the investigation for the prevention and punishment of crimes against the State and against the public order, politically driven or terrorism offences and crimes.
The Political Offices are organized into three Sections:

• Information section - general information, collection activities and analysis of information processing. The information sections monitors para-political, religious and sporting organizations, with particular attention paid to the supporters' organizations, radical movements and any other organization or movement present and rooted in the territory which may have implications for public order and public security.
• Investigation section: it carries out the judicial police activities in the areas of responsibility of the office, such as crimes committed at sports events, crimes against the State and any other crime with implications on the order and public security which is not attributable to common or organized crime.
• Counter-terrorism section: it carries out investigations in relation to terrorist groups.

Each Political Office maintains an its own political archive, which is kept distinct from the general archive; the Political Archive is directly managed by the Office personnel; only external authorized personnel may access the Political Archive. Only those deemed most dangerous subversives are reported to the central archives (both those of the Political Police Division and of the Confidential Affairs Division), while in the province the surveillance also extends to less important people. Personal files are opened after a central order or, more frequently, after a suggestion coming from the territorial general police organizations (such as Police Stations), from the local Party and Militia.
Political Offices often have a separate wing dedicated to their own use. Each Political Office head-quarters has a large hall which is used for internal meetings and news conferences. An ordinary Political Office is directed by a Deputy Quaestor, while important ones are led by Quaestors, 2nd Class. Officials in charge of the Sections only deal with the management of operational services, while personnel management is completely handled by the Detachments (of CPR military personnel) established in each Section. The Detachments are Squad-strength each, and they are commanded by the most senior available Subofficer.

Division VIII - Border Police

The Division of Border Police is tasked with securing and protecting Italy's international borders from unlawful entry of both personnel and materiel. Key tasks include: fixed-point surveillance from border forts and annexes; security patrolling between fixed sites and ports of entry; interdiction of personnel, goods, and equipment in the international border regions and the coastal area; and detention, processing, and exploitation of dissidents and contraband. The Division is organized into 10 Border Police Regions and is the body responsible for all the management of the activities related to land and sea borders protection, in cooperation with the MVSN, the Guardia Repubblicana di Finanza and the Navy (Coast Guard). The Division is further subdivided into three Sections (General Affairs, Borders and Immigration contrast).
The "Section I - Borders" is the element tasked with the management of 53 air, sea and land ports of entry within Italy, responsible for securing ports of entry from internal and external threats and for coordinating Ministerial support to the land points of Entry. The Section manages 18 Border Police Sectors (responsible for land ports, airports and land accesses), 15 Border Police Offices at sea ports, 18 Border Police Offices at airports and 12 Border Police Offices at integrated air and seaports. This Section does not have authority over the numerous tenant ministry organizations located at each of the ports. In some cases, there can be up to 10 different ministries working at a land port, making coordination and efficient port operation quite difficult and the Prefect's activity is under pressure.
The "Section II - Immigration contrast" deals with immigration contrast and the police cooperation, both at the international and at the Empire level. The Section is divided into four Offices: Immigration Contrast and without Permits Foreigners Office; Sea contrast and Liaison Officers Office; International and Empire Relationships Office; Stay Permits and Immigration Offices Coordination Office.

Division IX - Transportation Police

The Division groups the two main specialities of Public Security: Traffic Police and Railway Police. The institutional responsibilities specialities are called to fulfil is the safety and security of transportations, of railway lines and of the border. Operators have a high level of professionalism, thanks to the frequency of specific courses at educational institutions of specialities. Each speciality is organized into a "Service", directed by an Inspector General or by a Quaestor 1st Class, assisted by two or more Quaestors 2nd Class. Both Services are characterized by an high degree of militarization: civilian officials are assigned only to the central offices and all the chain of command consists of military officers who, once assigned to the Division, complete their career in the Service which they are assigned to.

Highway Police Service

The Highway Police Service (Servizio Polizia Stradale) activity takes place on the Italian highway network and on main roads outside highways. It is commanded by officers of the Republican Police Corps, while all other sectors are directed by public security officials. The Service performs tasks of prevention and detection of traffic violations and of traffic accidents, manages inventories for traffic safety, the use of the road assets, helps in the relief operations and detects the traffic flows. The Service Command is subdivided into four Offices, each led by a Colonel:

• Office I - Personnel, Training and General Affairs; the Office also operates the Highway Police Training Centre (Centro Addestramento Polizia Stradale, C.A.P.S.).
• Office II - Operations and Statistical Analysis; the Office is the operational subdivision, which coordinates the activities of prevention, suppression and rescue. The Office prepares road escorts and road surveillance targeted services. In addition, it deals with the statistical analysis and manages the Central Operations Room Information and Coordination Centre for Road Safety (Centro di Coordinamento per la Sicurezza Stradale, Ce.Co.S.S.).
• Office III - Analysis;
• Office IV - Technical equipment and Accounting.

At peripheral level, 19 Inter-provincial Compartments operate with as many Motorways Operations Centres (all commanded by Lieutenant Colonels) and 110 Provincial Sections (led by Majors); in turn, Sections have, as detached bodies, 81 Subsections and 188 Detachments, commanded by junior officers. In Cesena there is the Traffic Police Training Centre and the Special Operations Unit is based in Rome.

Railway Police Service

The Railway Police Service (Servizio Polizia Ferroviaria) is a service of Public Security, responsible for the prevention and suppression of crime and the maintenance of order and public safety in the railway sector. The service ensures the supervision stations, on trains and in transit patrols along the line in collaboration with the militia station. The Railway Police Service is organized on a territorial basis in peripheral offices, consisting of 17 "Compartments" (based in Ancona, Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Ajaccio, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Turin, Trieste, Venice, Verona), which control the peripheral, smaller detachments (17 "Sections", 27 "Subsections", 153 "Railway Police Posts").
The Railway Police Service is organized, at the central level, in five offices, each directed by a Questor, 2nd Class:

• Office I - Planning and Coordination: The Office provides strategic planning and manages the coordination with the State Railways and the Railway Militia;
• Office II - Analysis: The Office running the study and analysis of data on rail safety, monitors the technological innovation;
• Office III - Personnel and Material Resources: The Office develops strategies for employment of staff (including training) and is responsible for logistics;
• Office IV - Propaganda: The Office manages the propaganda for rail security;
• Office V - International Relations: The Office collaborates with the organs of the Railway Police of the neighbouring countries for the realization of joint services.

Airport Police Service

The Airport Police Service (Servizio Polizia Aeroportuale) is a specialized Public Security service, which consists of personnel trained in airport security, also in order to deter, prevent and counter terrorist acts. In addition to the traditional police and public security duties, the Airport Police act as the Air Navigation Police, such as aircraft control, complaints of breaches of aviation law and the surveillance of sensitive or confidential airport areas. Functionally, the Service depends on the Ministry of Transportations. The 20 Airport Police Stations are located at major airports and are assisted by the nearest Territorial Police Stations; at other airports there are Airport Police Posts, which have less autonomy and personnel assigned. At the airports there are also the proper bodies of the Border Police.

Division X - Scientific Police and Forensics

The Division of Scientific Police is the centralized structure which intervenes when particular expertise in the field of the natural sciences is required. The Division manages the Cabinets of Scientific Police (inter-provincial and provincial levels) and Signalling and Documentation Posts. From its establishment, which dates back to 1902, the Scientific Police has continually improved its ability to intervene and has acquired a great experience that has always placed at the service of citizens and institutions.
The Division is centrally organized into four Sections, in turn subdivided into five or six Offices each:

• General and Legal Affairs Office;
• Section I - General Affairs and Support: General and Personnel Affairs Office; Resources Office; Training Office; Technical Support and Violent Crime Analysis Office; Forensics and Criminology-Applied Psychology Office; Information Systems Office;
• Section II - Identification services;
• Section III - Chemical and Electronic Investigations;
• Section IV - Ballistic and Biological Investigations.

Territorial structure

The Division of Scientific Police directs 14 Inter-provincial cabinets of Scientific Police in Ancona, Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Rome and Turin. The Inter-provincial cabinets have jurisdiction with regard to the photographic signalling, the Inspection of the Scientific Police, the electronic documentation in investigative services and the services of public policy, the design of the face in order to support identification, the exaltation of latent papillary imprints, fingerprint comparisons, graphic and ballistic investigations. They also have responsibility about the regeneration of the abraded serial numbers, documents and drugs examination.
The Provincial cabinets of Scientific Police are established in every Questura (with the exception of those where there is already the Inter-provincial Cabinet) and are framed into the Anti-Crime Division. They have specific responsibility to carry out the Inspection of the Scientific Police and photographic identification. The activity of the provincial cabinets, if necessary, is coordinated by the leaders of Inter-provincial cabinets, which are directly involved in directing the operations of particular gravity.
The Signalling and documentation Posts are located at the Commissariats of Public Security particularly involved in combating crime and protecting public order and security. They have specific responsibility to carry out the technical inspection and photographic identification.

Division XV - Health Service

The Division XV - Health Service is the administrative structure that directs and coordinates both civilian and military health activities. The Division head is the a Prefect, who previously held the position of Chief of Health Service of the Republican Police Corps (a Major General). Physicians of the Administration of Public Security may be civilian doctors, framed as medical officials, or medical officers, members of the Republican Police Corps.
Centrally, the Division is subdivided into an Health General Affairs Section, three Medical Institutes (Toxicology, Neurology and Medical Psychology, Preventive and Labour Medicine) as well as the Monitoring Centre for Labour Safety. All the central bodies are staffed with civilian and military personnel.
The peripheral structure of the Division is complex and articulated according to a double chain of command.
Every Interregional Directorate of Public Security has a Health Service Division: the latter controls, directs and coordinates the Provincial Health Offices, which are part of the Questure, as well as the Interregional Police Hospitals. The Provincial Health Offices are in charge of both military and civilian personnel attached to the Questure, as well as of providing medical personnel to police investigations and to prefectorial tasks.
The Interregional Command of the Republican Police Corps have their own Medical Sections, in charge of providing medical services to those military units of the Republican Police Corps which are not framed into a mixed (military+civilian personnel) office. In addition to the unit medical assistance, the Interregional Command and its Health Section are in charge of providing (military) medical officers to the Joint Military Hospitals.

Inspectorates of Public Security

Inspectorates and Special Offices of Public Security which have no territorial jurisdiction but are established for special tasks of surveillance and protection. Inspectorates depend directly on the Chief of Police. Each Inspectorate has at its disposal a Group of the Republican Police Corps, with the exception of the Inspectorate of P.S. "Viminale", which operates the Autonomous Group.

• Inspectorate of Public Security "Vaticano" - for the protection of the Holy Father and vigilance of the Holy See
• Inspectorate of Public Security "Palazzo Venezia" - for the protection of the Chief of the Government and for the surveillance of the seat of government
• Inspectorate of Public Security "Chamber of Fasci and Corporations" - for the protection of the President and the supervision of the registered
• Inspectorate of Public Security "Viminale" - for the protection of the Minister of the Interior, under-secretaries and the monitoring of the complex of the Interior Ministry. Special Offices of Public Security at some ministries depend on the Inspectorate at the Ministry of Interior. These Special Offices of P.S. are in turn in charge both to guarantee the Ministry security and to provide relevant police services overall direction.
  

Inspectorates of Public Security are headed by officials of Public Security with the position of Inspector General.

Special Inspectorate of Public Security at the Ministry of Health

The Special Inspectorate of Public Security at the Ministry of Health (Ispettorato Speciale di P.S. presso il Ministero della Salute) is placed directly under the Minister of Health; members of the Inspectorate have therefore the powers of the Health Inspectors; therefore they may act, by day and by night, in all those places where there is production, administration, storage or sale of products intended for human or animal use. These powers are exercised independently from the powers of agents and officers of judicial police, as well as from the powers of agents and officers of public security.
The Inspectorate also has responsibility in the field of international prophylaxis of infectious and contagious diseases, air, border and maritime health, as well as manufacture and sale of medicines. In addition, it oversees the cosmetics and herbal medicine, on the production of medical devices, medical devices and diagnostics, hygiene and public health, and animal health. Finally, the Inspectorate oversees the production and trade of legal drugs for the preparation of pharmaceuticals. The most serious and dangerous adulteration come very often by the operator located at a considerable distance from each other, so the activities are beyond the control of local authorities, subject to territorial limitations, but can be well contrasted by the Inspectorate, characterized by a top-down organization, and thus be able to have a global vision.
Officers, Officials and Marshals of the Inspectorate are carefully selected according to a specific attitude and investigative experience, according to an adequate degree (preferably in technical matters) and the successful completion of a course lasting two months. The troops is also subject to ongoing training, but does not have constraints with respect to the qualification. The Health Inspectorate (as it is often colloquially nicknamed) and the Scientific Police Division often collaborate for the purpose of investigation, and the exchange of personnel is common.
Lectures and exercises are carried out by officials of the Ministry of Health, researchers from the Institute of Health and Officers and Officials of the Inspectorate; students are taught the concepts of chemistry, parasitology, microbiology, food science and product category. The professional training is regularly updated and enriched with courses and seminars, during which contingent problems are addressed and developed operating systems for more effective action against the adulteration and supervision in the health sector in general.
The Special Inspectorate is divided into:

• 1 Central Office, commanded by an Inspector General, based in Rome;
• 1 Deputy Commander, with the rank of Quaestor 2nd Class , who has direct responsibility for operating activities;
• 1 Office Command, headed by a Deputy Quaestor, for the coordination of operational aircraft purposes, logistics and personnel management;
• 3 Detached Groups, supported by officials (Quaestors 2nd Class or Deputy Quaestors), based in Milan, Rome and Naples. Detached Groups are placed directly under the Deputy Commander;
• 37 Adulteration and Health Teams (Squadre Antisofisticazione e Salute, SAS), the executive bodies commanded by Commissioners or Marshals, located in the 21 regional capitals and in several provincial capitals. Teams are placed in the employ of the respective Detached Groups.

The operational work carried out by the Inspectorate develops through three main operating modes. First of all, the Inspectorate conducts investigation proceedings, which consists of investigations to stamp out illegal activities in the specific field of adulteration, food and health care fraud. Such investigations are very long and laborious, requiring investigative acumen, outstanding professionalism and knowledge of the socio-economic context in which they operate; judicial police investigations in the field of food adulteration are conducted with operational criteria that substantially differ from the normal law enforcement techniques.
In addition to investigations, the Inspectorate uses also monthly planned checks, in one or more areas of intervention throughout the national territory and, finally, control services in the national targets previously identified, planned in consultation with the Ministry of Health. These are monitoring operations on particular sectors of the productive, commercial and socio-ethical spheres, aimed at ascertaining the exact application of laws and regulations and to obtain useful statistics also memories to verify the effectiveness of the control and to identify areas most at risk on which to bring together the most appropriate interventions.

Special Inspectorate of Public Security at the Ministry of National Culture

The Special Inspectorate of Public Security at the Ministry of National Culture (Ispettorato Speciale di P.S. presso il Ministero della Cultura Nazionale) has the task to deal with, using effective tools and targeted interventions, the alarming phenomenon of cultural and monumental impoverishment of Italy. The Inspectorate is functionally subordinate to the Minister of National Culture, Tourism and Sport. The Inspectorate carries out judicial police investigations, combating all offences about the Italian cultural heritage. In particular, it focuses on clandestine excavations at archaeological sites, theft and illegal trafficking of artwork, on damage to monuments and archaeological sites, on the illegal export of cultural property and on forgery of works of art. In addition, the Inspectorate also fights recycling operations related to illegal trafficking in cultural objects. For these purposes, the Inspectorate also performs routine surveillance on exhibitions, fairs, auctions both in Italy and abroad as well as against antique dealers, restorers and art dealers.
As specialized body, the Inspectorate also operates the database about cultural offences, both against the material heritage and against the national spirit and cultural dote, and supports (for technical surveys) the regular surveillance and monitoring of cultural sites, including those protected by the UNESCO. The surveillance is carried out in close relationship and liaison with Universities, the Arts Superintendence, and Catholic Church authorities.
The Inspectorate is led by the Inspector, who ranks Inspector General (assisted by a Lieutenant Colonel for the CPR Group), and is composed of a central Division, in Rome, which in turn is articulated on a Support Section and on an Operations Sections.
The Support Section deals with logistics and administrative support, and includes the Secretariat, the Civilian Personnel Office, the Operations Planning Office and the Data Processing Office. The Operations Sections organizes and carries out the most important operations, and provides operational supports to the peripheral structure. The Operations Sections includes four themed offices: the Antiques Office, the Archaeology Office, the Office for Falsification and the Office of Contemporary Art.
Finally, the peripheral structure, which is directed and coordinated by the Deputy Inspector (ranking Quaestor, 2nd Class), is articulated on 15 Teams, which have regional or interregional responsibility.

Inspectorate General for the General Affairs

The Inspectorate General for General Affairs (Ispettorato Generale per gli Affari Generali, I.G.A.G.) has the task of monitoring the execution of orders and directives of the Minister and the Chief of Police, to report on the activities carried out by the offices and peripheral organs and verify the effectiveness of the services. The Inspectorate also has supervisory functions in the field of safety and health in the workplace and leans to the Interregional Directorates for territorial decentralization. Finally, the General Inspectorate has also some functions of inspection and control on the activities undertaken by the Central Offices.
The Inspectorate General is headed by a Director, ranking Prefect of 2nd Class, a corps of 28 Inspectors General, who depend directly on the Director, and three Sections. The Inspectors General are each assisted by a 3-4 men team. The General Affairs Section deals with general affairs, organizational, technical and logistical support, personnel management, its training, the Archives and the Security Secretariat.
The Coordination, studies and proposals Section analyses the results of the verification activities and provides the summary of the results of inspection, indicating the issues raised. The section is divided into two offices: Office for Coordination and Inspection Activity and the Management Studies Office.
The Vigilance and Support Section is responsible for verifying compliance with the requirements in the restricted areas of the Ministry of Interior and the peripheral offices. The Section has three offices; two offices are governed by a Director of Division (Medical) of Public Security, and an office is ruled a Director of Division (Technical) of Public Security. The Vigilance Office deals with programmed and emerging surveillance at all restricted facilities of the Ministry of Interior; the Studies Office manages the study and analysis of the current legislation for the purpose of training and retraining of doctors in charge of the specific field of supervision; finally, the Technical Office carries out studies and consultancy, technical surveys carried out in the workplace and on construction sites in areas dependent on the Ministry of Interior.

Interregional Directorate of Public Security

The Interregional Directorates of Public Security are 5 interregional offices linking the Capital and the Regional Offices of Public Security (which have a data collecting co-ordination duty) and serving to ensure the functioning of the system. The Directorates operate reporting to the Chief of Police for the exercise of the decentralized inspection and control functions in all offices and peripheral organs of the administration of public security within their boundaries and for the carrying out of the decentralized organizational and administrative functions. The Interregional Directorates also contribute also to the development of plans and programs relating to the procurement, supply and allocation of human resources, equipment and logistics and the related checks. All the Interregional Directorates of P.S. (and their CPR counterparts) are based in Regional capital cities or towns, with the exception of the North East Interregional Directorate of Public Security, which is based in Padua.
The Directorates have a primary responsibility for general affairs, for the personnel and resources use to meet temporary requirements, for transfers for environmental compatibility and to return to service. Finally, with regard to the Health Service, the Directorate Inter-discipline authorize absence, which is programmable not predictable, the medical and paramedical staff. The Directorates are headed by Directors General of Public Security; the Interregional Directorate of Rome is headed by a Prefect, 1st Class, drawn from the police ranks. The fact that the Interregional Directorate reports only and directly to the Chief of Police determines that it can be used (and sometimes it is actually used) to bypass both central Divisions and provincial Prefects; this allows a strengthening of the Quaestor's technical say, against the local Prefect's opinion, which may not be so technically qualified.
Each Directorate is subdivided into several four Divisions, including the most important one, i.e. the General Affairs Division and the Personnel Division:

• General Affairs Division: it deals with general support activities. The Division includes the Secretariat, the Inspection and Audit Office (one of the most important office within the Directorates) and the Legal Office.
• Personnel Division: the Personnel Division deals with personnel transfers and includes the Recurring Temporary Needs Office, the Emergency Needs Office and the offices designed to assess the proposed environmental incompatibility (the Personnel Assessment Office) and to provide and alternative see (Transfers Office).
• Health Service Division
• Planning and Organization Division
• Internal Affairs Division: the Internal Affairs Division deals with disciplinary and order enforcement matters within civilian personnel of the Directorate General; therefore, as it is should be emphasized, this organization falls completely outside the military police duties and tasks of the National Republican Guard, although both officials (A-Group personnel) and executive clerks (C-group personnel) are subject to special regulations which mirror the Army provisions. The Internal Affairs Division is aimed to provide discipline, integrity and order enforcement within civilian workers and it is framed within the general framework of the Public Administration: the political surveillance is carried out by the apposite Party delegations and organizations. However, due the peculiar context, it carries out detective work with the civilian officials and military officers and troops assigned. The Division is organized into four offices: a Secretariat, two operational offices (Police Ethics and Integrity Office and Police Misconduct Office) and the PNF Delegation (including at least a GNR officer assigned to military police duties), with limited executive powers but with a major consultative role. The PNF delegation is composed of members appointed by the central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which must choose members from the regional Commissions.
  

Alongside the Interregional Directorates, there are 5 Interregional Commands of the Republican Police Corps having the same boundaries: these Commands are tasked with personnel general management with the same responsibilities of the Interregional Directorates, as well as training co-ordination of the Area Inspectorates and administrative support. In case of war, they report to their relevant Army Corps. Each CPR Interregional Command is led by a Major General.

Regional Office of Public Security

The Regional Offices of Public Security are 21 multi-provincial police offices in charge of co-ordinating public security information-gathering work within their boundaries, which coincide with the boundaries of the Courts of Appeal and Assize, and with those of the special (anti-terrorism and anti-mafia) prosecution pools. Each and every public security organization set up in municipalities (Commissariats of P.S.) and provinces (Questure) is under the coordination management of the local Prefect and the public security organs at the higher level; therefore, Commissariats are dependent on the Questura and Questure are dependent on - for coordination and information management purposes only - the Regional Offices of P.S., which in turn are overseen by the Interregional Directorates and the Chief of Police. The 21 Regional Offices are directed by a Director General of P.S. in charge of Peripheral Office and, for information purposes, are in direct touch with the Chief of Police - Director General of Public Security. All the Regional Offices of P.S. (and their CPR counterparts) are based in the Regional capital cities or towns, with the exception of the Veneto Regional Office of Public Security, which is based in Padua.
The Regional Office of P.S. is mainly dedicated to the data and information collection management, and its administrative structure reflects the mission entrusted to such an organization with two information management-related Divisions:

• General Affairs Division;
  • Supervision Office;
  • Audit Office;
  • Publicity and Public Relations Office;
  • Personnel Office;
• Domestic Security Division: it is mainly staffed by Political offices' delegates and has liaison officers from the Republican Guard of Finance, and deals with homeland security-related information analysis. It is directly linked to both the Political Police Division and the Confidential Affairs Division;
  • Economic Crime Information Office;
  • Public Order Information Office;
• Criminal data management Division, which is charged also with regional coordination tasks of the Mobile Squads against organized crime;
  • Narcotics control Office;
  • Criminal Police Centre: the Criminal Police Centres are the peripheral subdivisions of the Central Operational Section and have information and investigative tasks against organized crime;
  • Smuggling Investigation Office: it is mainly composed of liaison personnel of the Republican Guard of Finance.

Alongside the Regional offices, there are also the Area Inspectorates of the Republican Police Corps, each led by a Brigadier General. Their responsibilities include logistics support and other functions.

Provincial administration of P.S.

Under the Ministry of the Interior it is also located the peripheral structure of the Administration of Public Security, whose mainframe is the provincial boundary. At the provincial level the figure of the Prefect is characterized by a dual role: he is responsible for the implementation of the ministerial directives and the direction of the police, and is also responsible for provincial order and public security.
In particular, the Prefect is not part of the chain of command which the Quaestor belongs to; however, the Quaestor operates under the Prefect. In addition, the Prefect is hierarchically subordinate to the Minister of Interior. The Prefect prepares plans for control of the territory, which the Quaestor must implement.
The Podestà, however, in his capacity as Local Authority of Public Security, is framed in a position of functional subordination to both the Prefect and Quaestor; he can be called to work in the fields of competence for the best performance of the function of public security.
There are also some police offices which are not under the Quaestor's command as Police official, but are under his direction in his capacity as head of the Public Security service in the province: these offices are, usually, Services detachments; finally, Celere units are not under Quaestor's command nor direction and neither under local Group Commander's jurisdiction, having their own chain of command. The Prefect, however, can use all of Local Police, Police, MVSN, GNR units, offices and services in the Province, if he deems that the situation requires so.

Provincial Commission for the Public Order and Security

The Provincial Commission for the Public Order and Security is a consultative commission established at each Prefecture; it consists of the Prefect, the Quaestor, the Federal Secretary of the National Fascist Party, of the Commander of the local Provincial Group of the Republican Police Corps, of the Commander of the local Provincial Legion.

Questura

The performance of police services is provided by provincial and local offices. In the capital city of the province, it functions, dependent on the Prefect, a Public Security bureau headed by a Quaestor (It: "Questore") and named "Questura". In other smaller centres are established detached Offices of Public Security, headed by a Public Security official reporting to the Prefect and the Quaestor. The most populous cities are divided into districts or sections, each with a specific Office of Public Security subject to the Questura. It is to be noted that "Quaestor" is both a rank and an office: not all Quaestors are in service at provincial Questure, but all Questure are headed by a Quaestor, of 1st or 2nd Class according the importance of the location; in all cases the provincial Quaestors organize frequent meetings during which the commanders of the provincial Questura and the commanders of the special units which are deployed in the province and are not outside his command analyse the investigative findings and plan joint operational activities.
In municipalities where an office of public security is not established the Podestà exercises the functions of an officer of public security under the direction and dependence of the Prefect and the Quaestor.
There are Identification Cabinets at Questure headquarters which, together with the central identification services, facilitate the service identification of the culprits.
The offices of the Questura are divided into four divisions: the first (cabinet) waits to services more directly aimed at the maintenance of order, the second (police) provides for the discovery of the crime and is maintained for such purposes, in direct contact with the judicial authorities and the third (administrative police) exercises functions of a preventive nature, while the territorial control is performed by the fourth Division.

• Operations Room
• Division I (Cabinet): the Cabinet Division includes both operational police offices, such as General and Confidential Affairs Office, Public order Office, and administrative support offices, such as Personnel, Accounting, Safety, Health, Barracking and Equipment Offices. This Division includes the archives of the Cabinet, Political Office and Foreigners Surveillance Office;
• Division II (Anti-Crime police): Mobile Squad (corresponding to the U.K. Criminal Investigations Department), Scientific Police Cabinet, Permanent Criminal Records of the judicial police, Identity cards and notifications register and Criminal general archive;
• Division III (Administrative and Social police): police affairs and administrative archives. The Administrative Division includes within its activities the issuance of various permits, such as commercial permits of public security, passports and weapons licenses; within the Division there are also police offices for minors and social policing, as well as Foreigners and Immigrants office.
• Division IV (General Prevention): the Division deals with prevention activities, patrols and territorial control.

The provincial capital cities are divided into Sections of Public Security. For each Section is headed by a Commissioner, a Assistant Commissioner and one or more Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Deputy Commissioners. Each section has at its disposal an Agents Squad of the Republican Police Corps, while each Province is organized under a Provincial Group of the Corps.

Mobile Squad

The Mobile Squad (It: Squadra Mobile) is the Anti-Crime Division cornerstone office, tasked with performing investigations duties. The Mobile Squad is usually headed by a Vicequestore, but also by a Quaestor, 2nd Class in most important cities. The Mobile Squad is the counterpart of British Criminal Investigations Branches and leads investigations to identify those responsible for the crimes and the collection of the relevant sources of evidence. The assigned personnel operate almost exclusively in plain clothes; the activity of the Division is solely and exclusively the detective work, which is mainly devoted to law enforcement action, while the prevention activity is normally delegated to other offices. Detective work is carried out making extensive use of informers in all areas of life in society, both in the sphere of organized crime and in political circles. Each Mobile Squad is structured around ten sections headed by Chief Commissioners, each specializing in a particular category of offences and in turn it is divided into Units, headed by a Commissioner:

• 1st Section: General Affairs
• 2nd Section: Organized Crime (coordinated by the Criminal Police Centres of the Regional Offices of Public Security).
• 3rd Section: Foreign Crime
• 4th Section: Offences against the person
  • Psychic Crimes and Crisis Unit: this team consisting of police officers and psychiatrists respond to bizarre and frightening crises and solve cases involving emotionally disturbed criminals, victims and/or witnesses.
• 5th Section: Vice
• 6th Section: Offences against property
• 7th Section: Offences against the Public Administration
  • Offences in the sphere of the consumer market and the execution of the administrative law Unit
• 8th Section: Anti-Crime
• 9th Section: Drug and Narcotics
• 10th Section: Fugitives

In smaller Questure some Sections are merged, while in major cities the Mobile Squad is an autonomous Division which operates alongside the Division II - Anti-Crime Police; in such cases, the Division is headed by a Quaestor, 2nd Class (who is not the deputy of Provincial Quaestor) and all subdivisions are one level higher (Sections becoming Offices, Units becoming Sections).

General Prevention Division

The General Prevention Division (It: Divisione Prevenzione Generale) is responsible for the general supervision and control of priority activities on the whole territory. Through continuous patrol, it ensures the security of the first and immediate response to the needs of citizens. As part of the Division operate "Patrol Cars" and "Neighbourhood Police" Sections. Being a subdivision which requires very few detective work, the General Prevention Division is massively staffed by military personnel, and by relatively few civilian officials, which mainly exercise supervisory functions.

Patrol Cars Section

The Patrol Cars Section (Sezione Autopattuglie) is a section of the General Prevention Division, is headed by a military officer, and it is present in each Questura. The same service performed by Commissariats is known as as "Radio Cars" (Radiomobili). Patrol Cars Sections are in direct contact with citizens in the cities; directed by radio from the Operations Room of their Province, the patrol cars get involved to any request for assistance received by the public emergency number 111. For this reason, the operators of the patrol car and the radio car must be able to face any type of intervention.
For each turn there are two or more patrol cars, depending on the city/town size; each patrol car is assigned a specific and precise area to be covered. Each turn is headed by a coordinating Marshal of P.S., who is responsible for the entire turn: he, at the beginning of turn, decides crews, sectors to assign and what patrol cars which have to carry out the services other than emergency (fixed surveillance, picketing, treatments of arrested/stopped people, etc..). The Patrol Cars, in addition to the repression service, also are entrusted of prevention service. The police patrol crews, who know their area of jurisdiction and the people who habitually frequents, observe carefully what is around them while patrolling the area, and this observation allows both to intervene promptly in case of need and to deter potential attackers.

Special Patrol

The Special Patrol (Italian: Pattuglia Speciale, informally Pattuglione) is a police patrol organized and executed for the specific needs of territorial control. Usually the "Pattuglione" is composed of a team of 10 to 15 agents on four or five cars. Such patrols can be arranged for the most different purposes: a type that is performed regularly, especially during the most unstable, is the patrol of the Political Office. Each patrol is coordinated by a Public Security Official, while on the field agents are controlled and commanded by a Subofficer; personnel may be drawn from the P.S., Local Police and MVSN. Special Patrols are conducted by an evident uniformed patrol, which is assisted by plain-clothes personnel.

Provincial Health Office

The Provincial Health Office (Ufficio Sanitario Provinciale, USP) is an office tasked to act as a coordinator for direction of all health facilities in the province of Public Security, both civilian and military ones. The central health care offices are removed from the coordination. The Provincial Health Office, in relation to the Republican Police Corps and the related health needs, coordinates its activities with the competent Military District.
The Office is framed into each Questura: the Quaestor is responsible for the planning and use of the Office; however, the general purpose of the Office is subject to the guidelines issued by the Prefect, after consulting the Provincial Health Council. This hybrid nature of the Office, which is located halfway between the Police and the prefecture, is also recognizable in the type of staff who is assigned: the medical staff of Public Security (also including military doctors of the CPR), and the staff of the Civil Administration of the Interior on issues concerning the administrative and bureaucratic management of healthcare.
The Provincial Health Office, alongside the management of health facilities, provides direct medical support activities and rationalization in favour of all the structures in which personnel of Public Security operates; finally, the Office receives reports relating to situations of particular relevance to the protection of health for the adoption of the first measures deemed necessary. The Provincial Health Office thus ensures the smooth management of all activities for the protection and health management, in favour of Public Security of the province.

Commissariat of Public Security

The Commissariat of Public Security is a structure of the administration of public security, framed in the territorial organization of the Questura. The Commissariat of P.S. is an operational detachment of the Questura: inside the Commissariat are present, albeit smaller and tailored to the operational needs of the covered area, the same offices and services available to the Questura. There are two types of Commissariats: Sectional Commissariats, which are city police posts and cover provincial capital Sections of Public Security, and Detached Commissariats, which act as outposts in the Province. The operation jurisdiction of the latter ones is extended on their District, while the civilian police official in charge of the Commissariat is a Local Authority of Public Security only for the municipality which the Detached Commissariat is located in.
The Commissariat is directed by an Official of Public Security with the rank of Commissioner or Chief Commissioner, or in the case of the largest and most important ones, of the rank of Vicequestore. Within the Commissariat, like the Questura, they are typically present facilities at which the citizen can carry out different practices of administrative police (issuance or renewal of passport, firearms license, administrative licensing, residence permit, etc..). There is also an "Anti-Crime Team", in which is possible to file a complaint, issue lawsuit, filing a complaint and generally make the most of the possible actions of a legal nature.
Alongside the civilian PS official in charge for running the Commissariat'+s activities, the military commander is in charge of agents, subofficers and junior officers assigned to the Commissariat. In Detached Commissariat, which are head-quartered in minor provincial centres and have a police jurisdiction area consisting of rural zones and small centres, the military detachment usually is a Subgroup, commanded by a Captain of PS. He commands not only agents assigned to the individual relevant Commissariat, but also troops assigned to the various Territorial Police Stations in the territory assigned to the Commissariat. In provincial capital cities, on the other hand, the Subgroup is in charge only for the city itself and its immediate surroundings, and the Subgroup Command is head-quartered in the Questura.

Territorial Police Station

The Territorial Police Station (Italian: Stazione Territoriale di Polizia) is the lowest operational unit of the Public Security apparatus, articulated on the organic forces ranging from a minimum of 4 to over 20 units; it is the direct and most visible legacy of the Carabinieri Stations, and in most cases they are the same stations active under the Arm of Carabinieri (disestablished in 1948). Stations are staffed only with military agents and subofficers, commanded by a Subofficer of the minimum rank of Marshal of Public Security. The station is responsible in a very specific area: large portions of the civilian infrastructure or city, or one or more municipalities. The Station Commander is responsible for direct control of land and related institutional activities. The national soil is so carefully covered by the dense network of stations of the Republican Police Corps, which are also the custodians of the first task of protecting public order and safety within the area they encompass, as well as the first line of military police and counter-espionage activities. The Station Commander (It: Comandante di Stazione) has several duties: he has the immediate direction of institutional service within his jurisdiction, where carries out the investigation, both proactive and delegated by the Prosecutor, as Public Security officer he intervenes in public and private disputes and exercises all initiatives in order to take appropriate preventive measures against socially dangerous people and, from a strictly managerial point of view, he is responsible for technical and operational using, for discipline and staff training, as well as for the properties, vehicle, computer and electronic equipment and furnishings. Stations are divided into three distinct sections:

• 1st category: the stations are placed with an operational focus and a less open to the public 8 hours per day.
• 2nd category: the stations are located which have a greater operational focus and are prepared to receive the public 14 hours a day distributed in 2 shifts from 8.00 to 22.00.
• 3rd category: the stations are those of crucial importance and cover the entire 24 hours through the system of shifts.

Each station is permanently manned. The most experienced non-commissioned officers are assigned to the command of the 3rd category stations, while the criterion of 'seniority determines the positions of command in the 2nd and 1st category. The station is the central element of territorial control and they are located in buildings specially constructed or upgraded in order to promote an effective defence. The premises of the station include a security prison, a chamber of discipline, a kitchen and a dining hall, housing the commander, one double every two agents, and, if married, one for each room and a garage. The stations, according to their own staff and to operational needs, can organize territorial mobile patrols, although it is not strictly required to do so.
The Station reports to the Captain of PS for military, personnel and disciplinary matters, as well as for military police duties, and to the head of the Commissariat for all other operational and functional police activities. Territorial Police Stations are usually responsible for more than one municipality, but the Marshal of P.S. who is the Station Commander is the Local Authority of Public Security only in the municipality where the Station is located in and only if in that municipality there is not a Questura or a Detached Commissariat of Public Security.

Republican Police Corps

The Republican Police Corps (Italian: Corpo di Polizia Repubblicana, CPR) is the military branch of the public security services. The Republican Police Corps has the main task of providing the bulk of personnel assigned to police duties, as well as the carrying out of some duties which are not entrusted to the whole Administration of Public Security but only to its military branch, which therefore performs also Gendarmerie-like duties. The CPR has responsibilities to perform routine surveillance over small municipalities also for what regards national and political security; in this areas, it cooperates also with the Militia and the GNR. From a military point of view, the Republican Police Corps is a proper Gendarmerie force, and it is the legitimate heir of the Royal Carabinieri, which were disbanded in 1948; on the occasion of the disestablishment, the Corps of Agents of Public Security was formally renamed Republican Police Corps. The CPR is also the Italian corps which carries out peace keeping and law enforcement training duties abroad.
The characterization of the CPR as the Carabinieri's legitimate heir dates back to mid 1970s, when the Italian political elite began to deteriorate, and some policy-makers sought to strengthen both the morale and the legitimation of the police. On February 28th, 1978 then-Minister of National Defence Giovanni Spadolini and then-Minister of Interior, Francesco Cossiga, made a joint speech, where the Carabinieri's War Flag was declared the national insignia of the Republican Police Corps. The following day all awards and decorations awarded to the Arm of Carabinieri as a whole (Decorazioni alla Bandiera) were officially transferred to the Corps. Together Carabinieri's awards, the CPR inherited also ethics and traditions.
The Corps is framed within the Inspectorate General of the Republican Police Corps, led by its own General-Inspector (a Lieutenant General), and as a whole subordinated only to the Chief of Police-Director General of the Public Security. The central bodies of the Inspectorate include the General Staff, led by the Second-in-Command of the Corps, an Air Service and a Training and Schools Command, which has responsibilities, in conjunction with Division IV - Police Schools, for matters which are related to military training. Alongside the Celere Units, the Corps has a territorial structure: it is stationed in every province, with its own officers, and placed under Quaestors, under the the overall command of the Chief of Police in Rome. The 110 Provincial Groups (Raggruppamenti Provinciali), each commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel or, for major commands, by a Colonel, are organized in 21 Area Inspectorates (Ispettorati di Zona), led by Brigadier Generals, which in turn are framed within 5 Inter-regional Commands, led by Major Generals; below the Provincial Group there are several Subgroups (Sottogruppi), in turn divided into Squads (Squadre), Sections (Sezioni) and Teams (Nuclei), each assigned to an individual subdivision of the provincial organization of the Public Security. There are one Cavalry Squadron Group head-quartered in Rome and several Celere Units (it.: "Reparti Celere"), trucked and well-armed, specially trained for emergency services.
Each Provincial Group reports, for both preventive and repressive military police duties, to the relevant Army District Command, although it is not part of the Army; the Provincial Group MP section of the GNR is often merged with its Army counter-part.
The Republican Police Corps is a military corps which depend exclusively on the Minister of the Interior, albeit it is modelled after the Army: therefore some powers are exercised in a somehow different way:

• The powers of the Minister of National Defence are exercised by the Minister of the Interior;
• The powers of the General Commanders of Field Armies, Territorial Commanders and higher posts, are exercised by the Chief of Police. During wartime, the Chief of Defence Staff steps in for military duties;
• The powers of the Commander of Army Corps are exercised by the General - Inspector General of the Corps;
• The powers of the corps commander are exercised by Area Inspectors officers, by School Commanders and Group Commanders, as well as by the Commander of the Autonomous Group of the Ministry of the Interior.

Officers

Officers of the Republican Police Corps are subject to the rules of the Regulation of military discipline for the Army and the military criminal law. There are slightly more than 4,000 officers. They are public security officers; junior and senior officers are also officers of Judicial Police. Officers of the Provincial Groups, within each province, depend on the relevant Prefect and on the relevant Quaestor.
All Officers are public security officers; senior and junior officers are also police officers. The operational use of Officers of the Corps concerns mostly the Celere Units and the Traffic Police: therefore the training provided at the Academy of Public Security focuses on these two aspects.
Cadets are recruited through public competition reserved for two-thirds to citizens between 18 and 23 years and the remaining third to the non-commissioned officers of the Corps with at least two years of service; the passage from troops to officer corps is encouraged. All Cadets, as well as physical and mental qualifications to the permanent police service, must have the high school diploma. In the Public Security system, which in turn is part of the wider law enforcement process, military officers are only exceptionally in charge of police services, while their task is essentially maintaining order and dealing with administrative and disciplinary matters: the bulk of police services is carried out by military agents and subofficers and by civilian officials. In addition to their official tasks, military officers of the Republican Police Corps act, as military commanders of their men, as a buffer between punitive decisions taken by civilian officials and their agents and subofficers, in order to ensure a severe but just discipline and to prevent unfair treatment.
There are slightly more than 4,000 officers; the far majority of these officers consists of junior and senior officers, being the number of General officers fixed up to 45.

• Lieutenant General: 1;
• Major General: 10;
• Brigadier General: 34;
• Colonel: 386.

Marshal Major of P.S. - Special Grade

Within the Republican Police Corps, the Marshals Major can be promoted to the appointment of a "Special Grade". These Subofficers are employed such as Subsection commanders of the Highway Police Service, platoon commanders at the police schools, chief clerks at the Inspectorate of the Republican Police Corps, at Area Inspectorates, at the Provincial Group commands, at the Compartment Commands of the Highway police service or other of particular importance.
The promotion to Marshal Major - Special Grade is awarded as a result of a favourable outcome of an aptitude test. The qualifying examination consists of a written test of professional culture and in an internship for a period of one year at commands or departments. The maximum number of the Marshals Major - Special Grade is 500 units, and it is included in staff of the Marshals Major.
Subofficers ranking Marshal Major - Special Grade have as their distinctive insignia a narrow golden stripe on jacket cuffs.

Brigadiers

The role of Brigadier the intermediate troop rank of the CPR, roughly equivalent to the Non Commissioned Officers in Commonwealth and U.S. armies. All Brigadiers have the qualifications of Agent Public Security and Officer of Judicial Police. The category is divided into two ranks:

• Vice Brigadier (Vicebrigadiere); Appointees and Chief Appointees who have at least 11 years of actual service can be promoted Deputy Brigadier through internal competition; those who pass the competition undergo a training course of six months.
• Brigadier (Brigadiere); the promotion to Brigadier is achieved through a merit-based selection, among the Vice Brigadiers who, to the date of the selection, have completed at least five years of actual service as Vice Brigadier.

Brigadiers perform executive duties, requiring an adequate professional preparation and with reduced margin of initiative and discretion; Vice Brigadier can also receive the command of small units, they are responsible for; "full" Brigadiers may be detached to command police posts. Brigadiers may, finally, replace their superiors in case of temporary absence or impediment.

Agents and Appointees

Agents and Appointees are the lowest tier of the Republican Police Corps; they have the qualifications of Agent of Public Security and of Agent of Judicial Police, and perform clerical duties with a reduced margin of initiative and discretion. They can also perform training tasks. Appointees can control and manage one or more agents. Chief Appointees can receive the status of Officer of Judicial Police, after passing the course of renovation The role of agents and assistants is divided into four ranks:

• Agent (Agent).
• Agent 1st Class (Agente Scelto); the promotion to Agent 1st Class is achieved through a merit-based selection, among the Agents who, to the date of the selection, have completed at least five years of actual service.
• Appointee (Appuntato); the promotion to Appointee is achieved through a merit-based selection, among the Agents, 1st Class who, to the date of the selection, have completed at least five years of actual service as Agents, 1st Class.
• Chief Appointee (Appuntato Capo); the promotion to Chief Appointee is achieved through a merit-based selection, among the Appointees who, to the date of the selection, have completed at least five years of actual service as Appointees.

Student Agents attend a course lasting twelve months, including nine months of training at the Agents Training Centre, and three months of internship in departments or offices of Public Security. The Student Agents can not be used in operational services, unless there are exceptional requirements of public order or civil unrest. The Student Agents during the training period undergo aptitude selection for assignment to special services. At the end of the training period, the Director of the Centre expresses fitness judgement or the judgement of rejection. Passed Student Agents are appointed "Probationary Agents" and sent for the internship. At the end of the internship, "Probationary Agents" achieve the appointment of full Agent. They take an oath and are placed in the role.
The enlistment of the troops is marked by strict criteria already during the preliminary determination of requirements: the aptitude tests and general knowledge are preceded by painstaking investigations and capillaries on the person and the family of the aspirant. The reappointment is three years for the duration of the service until retirement, which means that the agent which no reported judgments of at least enough about the quality of its service is automatically relieved of his duties by the Corps. Such treatment is justified by the fact that the military can not ever take for granted his reappointment, is held in a constant self-improvement.

Disciplinary Committee

The Republican Police Corps, due to its proximity and interpenetration with the civilian Public Security apparatus, has an its own way to enforce discipline and military regulations. The Disciplinary Committee is composed of the Prefect, who convenes and presides over it, with the right to appoint a substitute, by the Quaestor or his Vicar and by a senior officer of the Corps, designated by the Area Inspector. An officer of the Republican Police Corps, appointed by the Area Inspector, of rank not higher than captain, perform the duties of secretary.
In proceedings for disciplinary committees for Subofficers, some peculiarities are in force. Some people are excluded from the disciplinary committee: first of all, the exclusion is towards some officers, such as the superior who has submitted reports or carried out investigations into the events that led to the disciplinary proceedings or who has an office relating to the discipline of subofficers, or the superior in rank who in any way had a part in a previous judgement or the Disciplinary Committee for the same offence, or has been heard as a witness in the disciplinary matter referred to it, or officers attending training courses or subjected to criminal or disciplinary proceedings; secondly, some other people are de jure excluded, such as the relatives, up to the third degree, the injured or damaged person and their relatives, relatives of the Subofficer subject to the proceeding, up to the fourth degree inclusive.

General Staff

The General Staff of the Republican Police Corps is the operational arm of the Inspectorate for the Republican Police Corps, and it commanded by Chief of Staff - Second-in-Command, who in turn is assisted by the Deputy Chief of Staff. The Chief of the Staff directs and coordinates the work of various departments, submits to the General-Inspector the various issues, giving relevant particulars of the proceedings; in addition, the Chief of Staff can decide over the issues which as the delegated authority to govern. Finally, he exercises command of the General Staff. The General Staff six departments:

• Military Chaplain;
• GNR Military Police Unit;
• Unit I - "Force Organization": it has control and coordination functions in the organization, training and disciplinary matters;
• Unit II - "Operations", with control and coordination tasks in personnel assignment and management, given requirements and needs of the larger Administration of Public Security;
• Unit III "Informatics" with control and coordination tasks in the computer and telecommunications areas;
• Unit IV "Logistics";
• Unit V "Budget Planning and Control" with administrative and financial functions given the general surveillance exercised by the Accountability Inspectorate;
• Autonomous Unit, with logistics, administrative and security tasks within the same command.

Air Service

The Air Service is the Republican Police Corps unit which provides air support to all police operations, ranging from routine surveillance to armed insertion of Paratroopers. The Service comprises all persons, aircraft, equipment, technical support and logistic infrastructures, whose primary function is to complement and enhance preventive action and control of land developed by the departments operating on the ground. Operational activities of the Aircraft Group consist of aerial reconnaissance missions, air support and medical aid. The mission is intended to support the needs of Territorial and Special Units. The Air Service is led by a Brigadier General and it is divided into:

• 1 Air Service Command with administrative, instruction, supervisory, logistical and technical advice tasks; the Command directly supports subordinate units. As technical responsible, a Divisional Director (Technical) of Public Security is attached to the Command.
• 10 Inter-provincial Aircraft Squadrons, dependants on the Group, homogeneously decentralized on national territory in order to ensure a timely intervention.

Squadrons operate according the technical directives issued by the Air Service Command and according the operational requirements of the various Questure. All Squadrons are connected to the "Situation Room" of the Command through a dedicated communication network on a national scale, which monitors the movement of individual aircraft and allows their management.

Special and Riot units

Emblem of special and riot units.

Special and Riot units are employed both for public order services (armed services, grand police services, crowd and riot control, counter-guerilla warfare and anti-banditry units) and for military duties, as well as emergency relief and territorial police support; however, the primary focus consists of the public order services and only in exceptional circumstances the territorial police is supported by the special units. These units, serving as a sort of counter-balance for the National Republican Guard internal troops, are manned and directed exclusively by the Republican Police Corps and are directly employed by the Directorate General of Public Security.

• Special Unit of Public Security Paratroopers (head-quartered in Florence), for sudden and emergency crisis;
• Cavalry Squadrons Group (head-quartered in Rome): it is organized into three Squadrons (based in Milan, Rome and Naples) and used in order to reinforce public order services as well as for operations in rural areas;
• 5 Counter-guerilla Groups (head-quartered in Cagliari, Vibo Valentia, Naples, Rome and Milan);
• 15 Celere Units of Public Security of various size head-quartered in: Rome (I Reparto Celere), Padua (II Reparto Celere), Milan (III Reparto Celere), Naples (IV Reparto Celere), Turin (V Reparto Celere), Genoa (VI Reparto Celere), Bologna (VII Reparto Celere), Florence (VIII Reparto Celere), Bari (IX Reparto Celere), Senigallia (X Reparto Celere), Catania (XI Reparto Celere), Palermo (XII Reparto Celere), Reggio Calabria (XIII Reparto Celere), Taranto (XIV Reparto Celere) and Cagliari (XV Reparto Celere); the Republican Police Corps has 19,000 men assigned to the Celere Units.

Celere Units' motto is "First to arrive, last to give in" (it: "Primi ad arrivare, Ultimi a cedere"). Agents believe, obey, fight. Their function is to ensure public order, at present and in the future. Unlike the rest of Public Security apparatus, men staffing the special and riot units are particularly committed towards Fascism, also due to intensive ideological training.
Riot dress consists of a field-type jacket, which covered several pieces of body armour and includes a corset hung from the waist, an aluminum plate down the spine, and shoulder pads. Armoured gauntlets cover the hands and forearms. Helmets have face plates and flared padded skirts down the back to protect the neck. The ranks carry 1.2-meter shields to protect against stave and rocks. Specially designed equipment includes water cannons, armoured vans, and mobile tunnels for protected entry into seized buildings. Each troop wears also a radio with an earpiece to hear commands given simultaneously to the unit he belongs to.
Celere units are maintained in virtually self-sufficient compounds and are trained to work as a coordinated force. Officers live in dormitories within riot barracks compounds. Training is continuous and focuses on physical conditioning, mock battles, and tactical problems. Celere barracks are the Police places where the military atmosphere prevails: dress codes, behaviour standards, and rank differentiations are far more strictly adhered to than in the territorial Public Security apparatus.

Special Unit of Public Security Paratroopers

The Special Unit of Public Security Paratroopers (It: Unità Speciale Paracadutisti di Pubblica Sicurezza) is a battalion of operational rapid deployment, made up of men of great courage, significant ability, resistant to fatigue and of proven loyalty to Fascism. The Special Unit is head-quartered in Florence.
The Unit is organized:

• Command Company, which brings together offices and logistical and technical services.
• 3 Paratroopers Companies, equipped with light weapons
• Armoured Company
  • Motorcyclists Paratroopers Platoon

The physical and technical-professional training is intense and exhausting and esprit de corps is very high; the Paratroopers Companies have environmental specializations, as well as the "Paratrooper Explorer" military qualification.

Celere Units

Celere Units (Reparti Celere) are units intended for use on the national territory for the protection of public order. They are also used to assist the local police, both in conjunction with the MVSN or alone. Celere Units are commanded by a Colonel each, assisted by a Senior Officer acting as deputy and they depend directly on the General Inspector, while functionally they are directed by the Public Order Office. Commanding officers deal with non-operational issues, such as disciplnary matters, training, logistics A Celere Unit is administratively considered as a small Army Regiment (1-2 Battalions) and it organized into:

• Command Company (5 Officers (2 Medical Officers), 13 Subofficers (4 Medical Subofficers) and 67 troops);
  • Command Office, for the management of of general affairs, personnel, training, warehouse and armoury and for asset management and accounting (Commander, Deputy Commander, 3 Subofficers and 17 troops);
  • Vehicles Office for the Unit fleet management (1 Subofficer and 16 troops);
  • Judicial Squad (2 Subofficers and 6 troops)
  • Telecommunications Office, for the management of the communication devices (1 Subofficer and 9 troops);
  • NBCR Unit (1 Officer, 1 Subofficer, 12 troops)
  • Logistics Office for the needs of the catering and social and recreational activities (1 Subofficer and 9 troops);
  • Health Office, for the protection of health (2 Medical Officers, 4 Medical Subofficers and 8 troops).
• 5-7 Operational Companies, 200 men each (4 Platoons).

The Provincial Authority of Public Security requires the use of Celere Units, and the Director General of Public Security orders the use, together with the special vehicles. The minimum operational level is the 10-men Team. Each Platoon is fully motorised and can be deployed also as a mechanized force if necessary to counter external invasion attempts.
The strength is represented by the deployment of policemen trained togheter and used to live and fight togheter. The unit life is structured to be

Uniform

The uniform of the riot and special units reflects police colours, but it has specific features. The uniform consists in a blue coat with zipper, behind which appears the detachable inscription "POLICE" in reflective fabric and trousers gray blue equipped with side pockets. Pants and jacket are in fireproof fabric and internally reinforced.
The uniform includes the blue beret with badge, black tactical vest with pockets. The pockets of the tactical vest staying grenades and radio.
The uniform also includes a light blue sweater turtleneck (in summer it is replaced with a blue T-shirt with the script "Police"), blue Cordura belt and crimson colored handkerchief that wraps around the neck, black infantry boots.

Public Order services

Public Order services are governed by a special Quaestor's order, which regulates all the roles of employees in service, including officials in charge of the service itself. The Head of Service is always a civilian official, mostly part of the local Political Office, and he wears civilian clothes with the Tricolour Scarf; also all other civilian officials and troops of of the local Political Office and of the Mobile Squad (the detective department) who may be present are in civilian clothes; if a civilian official is placed in command of a troop, under the Head of Service's command, he wears a blue scarf, like military officers. All others wear the uniform. Only the Head of Service is in charge. Other officials and officers are under him in the roles specified in the Quaestor's order: they have command of their units, but are subordinate to the Head of Service.
The Head of Service directs the service by giving rules on the objective to be pursued, while the commander of the unit is responsible for the practical part of the service. In handling violent demonstrations and disturbances, riot units are deployed en masse and individual action is strictly forbidden. Training is constant and focuses on physical conditioning, mock battles, and tactical problems.
When, at meetings or gatherings in a public place, events take place or cries seditious or damaging the prestige of authority, or that may endanger public order or discipline are shout, or when in meetings or in assemblages predicted crimes are committed, meetings and gatherings can be dissolved. The exhibition of anti-fascist flags, emblems or symbols, or any device displaying concepts or ideas of subversion or rebellion or disdain toward the State, Government, Duce or authority in general is always considered as being a seditious event.
When it is necessary to dissolve a meeting, the people gathered are invited to dissolve by Officers or Subofficers. If the three formal dissolution invitation calls (pronounced after the failing of informal calls) remain without effect, the dissolution is ordered with three distinct formal notices, each preceded by a trumpet blast; if the three trumpet injunctions remain without effect or they can not be made because revolt or opposition, the Head of Service orders that the meeting or gathering is dissolved by force.
Both predominant mentality and operational approaches are heavily influenced by the fascist characterization of the Italian Social Republic and they are no way intended to guarantee the expression of a political pluralism: however, Italy is no longer a totalitarian State. Riot control follows this setting: although most rallies and demonstrations are carried out by opponents to the Government (but mostly protesters are Fascists who do not support the particular faction in power), the predominant contrast approach do not deny, in practice, the right to demonstrate. The Public Security apparatus (but not the Party armed units) tends to distinguish between "good protesters" (Fascists, peaceful, young, pragmatic, well-disciplined, with a direct interest in the confrontation and with a specific goal) and "bad protesters" (non-fascist or even anti-fascists, uninformed, violent, "professional agitators"); this distinction is present both in official rhetoric and in operational knowledge.
A military atmosphere prevails: dress codes, behaviour standards, and rank differentiations are more strictly adhered to than in the regular police. Esprit de corps is inculcated with regular ceremonies and institutionalization of rituals such as applauding personnel dispatched to or returning from assignments and formally welcoming senior officers to the mess hall at all meals. They are also trained to take pride in their poise under stress.

Prevention strategies

In the case of international summits accompanied by protests, the strategy of physical isolation of the places of the summit is applied: the access roads to the city are reduced, it establishes a "yellow zone" with restrictions on freedom of expression and of circulation (intended to permit a limited and attentively watched protest) and a fortified red zone. In the most severe cases the closure of railway stations, airports and motorway exits is also ordered. The instrument of the "Prefect's Decree of Provincial Expulsion" (Decreto Prefettizio di Espulsione Provinciale) is used to keep away from the place of the protest activists more dangerous. In the days before they searches of private homes and subversive hideouts are carried out.
In preparation for major clashes, the propaganda offices spread unfounded and alarming news, with the aim of releasing a picture not differentiated of "subversives" as "bad protesters".

Combat strategies

Interventions carried out by both Celere units and MVSN are usually brutal, repressive and generalized, in order to dissolve the entire event or gathering. The action of the Celere is usually stiff, responsive and closed to the communication with the protesters. However, in some cases the prior consent and flexible approached is searched for. The dominant model, characterized by the linear escalation in the use of force, is given an high priority; innovative forms of protest are not tolerated, communication between Public Security and demonstrators is reduced to a minimum and there is a frequent coercive measures and use of agents provocateurs.
When a rally deviates from the authorized zones, policemen stand shoulder-to-shoulder, forming a shield wall, usually five to six deep. If protesters throw objects or rocks, agents form a testudo formation. Individual action is strictly forbidden. Three-person units sometimes perform reconnaissance duties, but operations are carried out by squads of ten, platoons of thirty, and companies of two hundreds. Front ranks are trained to open to allow passage of special squads to rescue captured police or to engage in arrest-aimed assaults. Each person wears a radio with an earpiece to hear commands given simultaneously to the formation.
In the case of confrontations between police and protesters, the safety distance is 25 meters; failure to comply with this limit triggers the transition from rest to early warning; when protesters approaching within 20 meters, the units move from early warning alarm; if the protesters approaching within 15 meters, units react and charge. This procedure is used only when the police protect a fixed point, or when the unit guards a prohibited path; units charge without provocation or any sign of approach if they have to forcefully dissolve gatherings.
Charges are directed towards the violent groups, if it is possible to separate them from the peaceful groups. During the dissolution of events or gatherings, the Celere units make massive use of tear gas and stinging. To attack large violent gatherings, armoured vehicles are used by launching them on the crowd at high speed. This particular and extreme measure is usually ordered by the highest authorities present, and it is usually preceded by the use (if possible) of non-lethal weapons, such as self-propelled water cannons, or similar vehicles; however, on one hand such vehicles are all armoured, and can be launched against the crowd if necessary, and on the other hand the non-lethal weapons can be easily replaced with conventional fire weapons by a workshop.
The Carousel is a riot-control tactic which consists in charging the demonstrators in motor vehicles, in order to disperse more quickly and minimizing physical contact. It is ua tactic that can be effectively used only when there are wide open spaces and the protesters are not compact and determined to resist.
The charges are aimed at rejection of the mass of protesters.

Celere Units deployment methods

The Celere Unit is organized into contingents, deployed in sensitive areas of the operating theatre and located in a safe and secure positioning and quick intervention areas, from which it is possible, through predefined paths, intervene in all zones assigned to do so any intervention. The contingent is always placed close to the vehicles assigned. The use of MVSN and other auxiliary units in the management of hard-line intervention is variously organized according to the particular circumstances. Use of mounted units is intended to complement the device for the maintenance of order and public security. Only in very rare cases, there are the conditions for safe use of such units, as the manoeuvrering space adjacent intervention areas. The effectiveness of these units becomes apparent only under certain logistical and environmental conditions: wide view, manoeuvrability, ability to control the force of an impact and psychological effect on the masses. The use of such operational resources goes across a number of limitations. The use of mounted units is intended to act as a complement the instrument for the maintenance of order and public security, or to contain the crowd to be dispersed.
The use of canine units is a significant resource for the benefit of the police to protect public order: they can increase the overall operational capabilities and often are a significant deterrent. The operational capability of these resources is particularly effective outside of the sport events, being careful to not deploy them in isolation, but integrated in a larger instrument and under the direct responsibility of the head of service. The minimum operational integrated entity, therefore, is not less than 2 squads. It should be emphasized the need to maintain the physical or mental integrity of the dog in order to be able to optimize the energy in the event of an intervention aimed at both containment of the crowd and the dispersal of the mob.
During the demonstrations, the police are in the head, tail and sides of the rallies. Often, agents are deployed at strategic points, where there are sensitive targets.

Student Agents in Public Order

Student agents, Subofficers Cadets and Officers Cadets may, exceptionally, be employed in the service of public order at the behest of the General Inspector of the Corps. In these exceptional cases, a certain number of Cadets are requested to each School or Academy to be sent where the reinforcement is needed. Obviously they must be already sworn agents or officers of public security. The various School Companies decide who send. The more difficult the event is, the more people need to be sent. Those who may have special needs declare them and usually they are not considered in the search for volunteers to go, the others "volunteer". If volunteers are more than the students needed, the Company Commander decides who to send; if volunteers are not enough to fill the requirements, the Commander finds other "volunteers".

Riot-control equipment

Celere units use a series of equipment items, in order to enable policemen to successfully contrast and quell any riot or protest and, at the same time, protect the police officer.
The primary offensive weapon is the 74 cm-long straightstick baton. It is a long cylinder with a wrapped grip, with a slightly thicker shaft and rounded tip. They are made of aluminium covered by rubber. A variant is a 91 cm-long "riot batons", used in civil disturbances by officers mounted on horseback. Other PS personnel use the expandable baton, which is easier to carry while in a vehicle. It is not permitted to hit with the baton the skull, sternum, spine, or groin unless such an attack is unavoidable. The primary targets are nerves and large muscles.
Riot shields are protection devices deployed by Celere units. Riot shields are long enough to cover an average sized man from the top of the head to the knees. They are used in riot control, to protect the user from shrapnel, thrown projectiles, and splash from various weapons such as a Molotov cocktail. They can also be used as short-ranged hand-to-hand combat weapons to push back rioters. Riot shields are constructed from transparent high-impact plastic to enable the bearer to see incoming thrown objects, so the shield can quickly be positioned to deflect them away from the policeman's body. Riot shields are rectangular with rounded corners, curved in the horizontal cross-section to shed thrown objects. The size is 70 cm to 100 cm.
The riot helmet is used to protect its wearer's head, face and eyes from handheld melee weapons, and thrown projectiles such as bricks, as may be met in riot control. The basic form is a hard shell with reinforced padding, and a chinstrap and a hinge-up visor. Visors are curved sideways and straight up-and-down. Accessories include a back-of-the-neck protector, the built-in radio microphone and earpieces. Newer models include a double visor: the outer visor is clear and hinges up outside the helmet, while the inner visor hinges up between two layers of the helmet and has a finish which can be seen through from inside but from outside looks like opaque polished brass.

Major events

In case of major events (such as international summits or other important events) which may pose a serious threat to public order, special preparations and cautions are implemented and about 5,000 policemen and legionnaires are concentrated; the strength is not fixed, and varies according the conditions. Usually, those in charge divide the host city in a three-tier subdivision. The Red Zone is the area where no demonstrator may entry, unless they are specifically authorized, and where the summit is held; the Yellow Zone is the area where unauthorized rallies heading to the Red Zone must be contained, stopped and dispersed; the Green Zone, where authorized (or de facto authorized) rallies may take place. Red Zone sewer manholes are sealed, and from four days before to the day after mobile gates and metal grids are installed to the Red Zone accesses, which are guarded 24 hours per day, also by cameras. In order to entry the Red Zone, a person must exhibit the pass, the ID card and the professional card, if he or she has one. Before the summit days, there are also mobile patrols which control and inspect people already in the Red Zone. The Yellow Zone is a limited-access area, while the Red Zone is accessible only to residents, authorized journalists, police and security officials and to the delegations. Helicopter surveillance is specially enforced. Armed forces and National Republican Guard garrison the most sensitive places: specialists for nuclear, bacteriological and chemical warfare, blasters, ships equipped with air defence systems, minesweepers. Unless the unauthorized protesters enter garrisoned places, the military does not come into contact with the protesters and have no responsibility for public order operational management.
If deemed sustainable, local inhabitants are encouraged to travel away, and the local PNF Federation is supported in the organizations of mass holidays and special work permissions are granted; on the other hand, all local MVSN Legionnaires are mobilized and recalled in service.
Access roads and highways are closely monitored, while highway rest houses around the city which hosts the event are frequently searched. From two days before to the day after, local railways stations, ports and airports are closed down and border control is reinforced. Deployment of at least some ground-to-air missiles is not unusual.
The preparatory training begins some months before the event. Such training is aimed to prepare public order units (officers, officials and troops) to deal effectively with the specific conditions; it also alerts police against non-violent initiatives such as the forming groups with legal knowledge to deal with all issues relating to legal issues, carry tablets, laptops, radios and cameras to transmit real-time on the Internet circuit pictures of the protest or the renting, even for a few hours, a satellite channel to spread the protest worldwide.
As a general rule of these events, when dissolving forcefully gatherings and rallies the police use the harshest methods possible; hydrants and oter special vehicles are widely employed. Personnel is drawn from Celere Units, and as a general rule only the local Unit is wholly deployed in the host city; the other general rule is to assign only trained and experienced and fully motorized personnel to major events located in another city because it is deemed that a smaller number of expert personnel is more useful than a larger number of unexperienced policemen.
A Command Post is established at the local Questura or at the local Prefecture. In turn, a separate Logistic Centre is established in a barrack, usually of the Republican Police Corps. Most of Italian major cities, however, have a CPR barrack adjacent to the Questura which in such occasions hosts the Logistic Centre. The operational commander is by default a Director General of Public Security, although sometimes a Major General of the CPR or even a skilled Prefect is chosen. The operational commander is assisted by other senior officials and MVSN officers, by local Quaestor and other senior officers (including commanders of the Celere Units which provide contingents to the public order services) and by the proprer staff units. Ordinarily, for non-tactical and non logistics matters, each corps or administration deals with its own personnel, while the public order establishment services are planned by the Command Post itself; finally, localized logistics are managed by the Logistic Centre. The commander has overall authority over all police, MVSN and military personnl employed in the city for the emergence. A week before the summit additional surveillance protocols begin to be implmented: all company-level units are divided into a Mobile Section and a Surveillance Section; the day immediately before the summit, when limited problems may arise, units are divided into a reserve fraction and some line fractions. Every unit and squad ordinarily stationed outside the host city has at least two local police officers or Legionnaires who must accompany it everywhere, especially during public order services.

M.V.S.N.

The MVSN contributes to major events public order services in several ways. The whole Provincial Legion is recalled into active service for the entire duration of the emergency and its personnel are employed in surveillance and vigilance duties; local Legionnaires are also employed as guides for mobile units deployed on the ground, the local Public Order Maniple is deployed as reserve force and the rescue unit is assigned to police assistance and rescue. If it is deemed necessary, neighbouring Public Order Maniples may be mobilized and concentrated in the host city.
As part of preparations for each of the major events, a Containment and Decisive Intervention Cohort (Coorte di Contenimento e Intervento Risolutivo, CCIR) is selected within the ranks of the Volunteer Militia on ad hoc basis. The Cohort consists of about ten Centuries (Centurie di Contenimento e Intervento Risolitivo, CeCIR, often referred to as CCIR, 100-strong companies) and is trained already two months before the event; the special feature of the training is that the focus is placed on the coordinated operations of several groups, each of them large. Cohort members of the cohort are all experienced Legionnaires serving in the public order units: usually, troops come from the Public Order Maniples of the Provincial Legions and from "M" Battalions of the National Republican Guard, while officers come from the Legionary Corps. The Cohort is usually commanded by a Prime Tribune (equivalent to a Lieutenant Colonel) who is based at the command post; during the public order services on the field, each provisional Century operates independently under the command of its own commanding officer (usually a Maniple Chief, equivalent to Captain) and under the direction of a Public Security official. The Centuries aim is to ensure targeted interventions or actions supporting other units during large disturbances, as well as during other particular disturbances characterized by the quality and quantity of the protesters themselves.
The decision to entrust the CCIRs to officers ordinarily assigned to combatant units performing high-risk missions, peace-keeping and manhunts shows the exact model of public order management adopted, i.e. to employ young people trained and very motivated and determined and officers with offensive approach and thorough and solid political trends. The armoured vehicles are launched into the seditious crowd at high speed in order to dissolve the unauthorized gathering.

Temporary prisons

A judge appointed by the Minister of Justice is responsible for coordinating all prison activities during the event. Prisons are all evacuated and their detainees transferred to other jails through the country. Usually a barrack is assigned to serve as additional and temporary prison for those stopped, arrested or captured during public order services. These temporary prisons are garrisoned by a joint staff: prison police, prison physicians, regular police and MVSN; they are ill-famed for serious mistreatments inflicted to detainees. There, the police (often rotated with units in forefront) behave as torturers, perpetrating violence, insults and aggressions against violent protesters stopped or arrested. The latter are forced to recite fascist and racist rhymes, to praise and sing hymns to the Duce and to Fascist Regime. Private violence and abuse of authority against detained or arrested are very common, physical and mental torture is not unusual.
The so-called ritual bashing is an reserved for the first protesters who are stopped or arrested. If conditions permit, just entered the waiting room, the detainees are forced to kneel down with his face to the wall and his hands behind his head. Immediately indiscriminate beatings begin, made from behind, so that the affected people could not realize who beat them. Any hint of protest or remonstrance simple and even the instinctive gesture of turning is punished by a resurgence of violence.

Serious unrest

In the operations against protesters and those who commit serious violence or incite them against the police, the figure of the Prefect is joined by that of the local military commander. If it becomes necessary to cope with sudden attacks carried by demonstrators, who endanger the lives of members of the Armed Forces or those of the MVSN legionnaires (attempts to dominate and disarmament, ambushes, etc..), the unit commander can certainly give the order to open fire. This shooting must be directed against the leaders or those who commit serious violence, or incite to, against the police, and not indiscriminately into the crowd. The use of arms must follow the policy that the action of one who is called to restore order must be more vigorous than that carried out by those who upset the order.

Ranks and insignia of the Directorate General of Public Security

Civilian officials are the emanation of the Authority of Public Security, and normally they do not wear uniforms; however, in some specified occasions, also civilian officials of Public Security have to wear police uniforms; these uniforms are the same model of the uniforms used by the Republican Police Corps. It should be noted that the Officials career of the Public Security Administration has the rank of Director General (Rank IV), but at central level this rank is replaced by the rank of Prefect, 2nd Class (Rank IV). Directors General, 1st Class are classed into Rank IV, but they do are senior in rank to the rest of Rank IV positions. Prefects 2nd Class assigned to Public Security positions come exclusively from the Officials of Public Security promoted to the rank of Prefect and they count within the 20% of Prefects which do not come from the Prefect career; in some Divisional positions, Prefects, 1st Class are appointed.
The Chief of Police - Director General of Public Security and his Deputy are Prefects, 1st Class (Rank III, drawn from police career) but they are senior in rank to other Prefects, 1st Class, to Directors General, 1st Class (which is an internal subdivision of the rank Director General) and to Lieutenant General Inspector of the Republican Police Corps.

Public Security military officers and civilian officials ranks and insignia
Public Security officials rank (civilian)	Vice-Commissario Aggiunto di P.S.	Vice-Commissario di P.S.	Commissario di P.S.	Commissario Capo di P.S.	Vice Questore	Questore di Seconda Classe	Ispettore Generale Questore di Prima Classe	Prefetto di Seconda Classe Capodivisione Dirigente Generale di P.S. di Ufficio Periferico o Speciale	Prefetto di Prima Classe Dirigente Generale di Prima Classe di P.S.
English translation	Additional Deputy Commissioner of Public Security	Deputy Commissioner of P.S.	Commissioner of P.S.	Chief Commissioner of P.S.	Deputy Quaestor	Quaestor, 2nd Class	Inspector General Quaestor, 1st Class	Prefect, 2nd Class in charge of a Division Director General of P.S. in charge of Peripheral or Special Office	Prefect, 1st Class Director General of P.S., 1st Class
Republican Police Corps rank	Sottotenente	Tenente	Capitano	Maggiore	Tenente Colonnello	Colonnello	Brigadier Generale	Maggior Generale	Tenente Generale Ispettore del Corpo
English translation	Under Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel	Colonel	Brigadier General	Major General	Lieutenant General Inspector of the Corps
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Sottotenente	Tenente	Capitano	Maggiore	Tenente Colonnello	Colonnello	Generale di Brigata	Generale di Divisione	Generale di Corpo d'Armata
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Second Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel	Colonel	Brigadier	Major General	Lieutenant General
Shoulder board insignia

Public Security military Subofficers ranks and insignia
Republican Police Corps rank	Maresciallo di P.S.	Maresciallo Capo di P.S.	Maresciallo Maggiore di P.S.
English translation	Marshal of Public Security	Chief Marshal of Public Security	Marshal Major of Public Security
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Maresciallo	Maresciallo Capo	Maresciallo Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Warrant Officer Class Two	Warrant Officer Second Class	Warrant Officer First Class
Shoulder board insignia

Public Security military Enlisted ranks and insignia
Republican Police Corps rank	Agente	Agente Scelto	Appuntato	Appuntato Capo	Vicebrigadiere	Brigadiere
English translation	Agent	Agent First Class	Appointee	Chief Appointee	Deputy Sergeant	Sergeant
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Soldato	Caporale	Caporale maggiore	Caporale Capo	Sergente	Sergente Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Private	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Staff Sergeant	Staff Sergeant (senior echelon)
Sleeve insignia	No insignia
Shoulder board insignia

Local Police

In Italy, the municipalities (and associated individuals) and the provinces are the holders of local police functions related to the powers conferred on them by the State. To that end up bodies of local municipal or provincial police. The Local Police function mainly comprises the protection of citizens from disasters, illegal trade fight, health personnel support, traffic police service (on secondary roads or in inhabited settlements), traffic regulation and parking, as well as local regulations enforcements. To do so, municipalities and provinces are required to establish local police services, under the authority of the Podestà or of the Rector, for the task of enforcing local regulations. The Podestà or the Rector of the province, in the exercise of their functions, give directions and supervise the functioning of the local police service. The personnel of the local police, while since 1984 under disciplinary overall control of the MVSN Provincial Legion, depends on the competent Authorities of Public Security, through the Commander of the local police. Local Police Agents are Auxiliary Agents of Public Security, and in this capacity they are required to carry out the orders given by superiors and the responsible authorities for the individual operating segments, within the limits of their legal status and laws.
Without prejudice to the general jurisdiction of the Public Security Administration, and within the limits of their powers, the municipal police officers carry out also duties required for crime prevention, public order, security, and public safety. During service, operations outside the territorial jurisdiction on individual initiative are permitted only in case of necessity due to the flagrant offence committed inside the jurisdiction, while planned external missions for rescue in case of calamities and disasters, or to provide support to other Corps to strengthen services on special occasions, are permitted upon an order/authorization by the Prefect.
The judicial investigative authority (i.e. Prosecutor or Examining Judge) may make use of personnel of the local police. In this case, the local police personnel depends operationally on the competent judicial authority; personnel assigned to Prosecution are given the qualification of Agent of Judicial Police.
The municipalities and provinces with their regulations define the organization of the local police, in accordance with the parameters established by the Minister of Interior. The regulations are communicated for approval to the Ministry through the local Prefect. The Prefect lays down general rules for the establishment of the Local Police within his Province, taking into account the size of the municipalities and of the Province, promotes appropriate forms of association among municipalities, determines the characteristics of the uniforms and rank insignia and issues regulations about device characteristics and operational tools supplied. The uniforms must be such as to exclude the close resemblance to the uniforms of Public Security, the Militia and the Armed Forces; the activities of the local police are always carried out in uniform and can be carried out in plain clothes only with Commander's written permission, in order to avoid abuses.
The Ministry of the Interior provides inter-provincial training centres for local police officers for their special needs, directed by a senior Public Security official and staffed with CPR officers.

Organization

Municipalities whose municipal police service is carried out by at least ten agents may establish the Municipal Police Corps (Corpo di Polizia Municipale), regulating the legal status of personnel with specific regulations. Provinces always establish their own Provincial Police Corps. The regulation sets the numerical quantity, according to functionality criteria, and the type of organization of the Corps, taking into account the characteristics of the settlement: the organization of the Corps is based on the principle of decentralization to districts. The personnel is divided normally in:

• Commander of the Corps;
• Officials;
• Subofficers and Agents.

The functions of the local police are compulsorily carried out in a partnership on the part of municipalities with a population of up to 3,000 inhabitants and the minimal strength is of 10 officers; if the Corps size is less than 20 Agents, the Commander can be a Marshal of Local Police. A specific Commander's duty is to send a Weekly Security Report to a variety of receivers; the Reports describes the security situation of the area under the Corps jurisdiction, with emphasis about (lesser) anti-fascist activities, immigrants and foreigners, public places such as bars, pubs, taverns and other matters which may be worth of notice. The Report is sent to the local Podestà (who in turn sends it to the Prefect) and to the highest Public Security authority within the area (who in turn sends it to the Quaestor).
The Local Police Corps commander is responsible to the Podestà or to the Rector and to the Prefect for the training, the discipline and the technical and operational use of the Corps; whatever rank he holds, he is a Substitute Officer of Public Security (Sostituto Ufficiale di Pubblica Sicurezza, S.U.P.S.). Access academic degrees are those corresponding to licenses applied for Public Security; however, the Prefect can authorize different requirements.
Rank insignia and organizational patterns are modelled on Public Security ones; usually, the Corps Commander uses a red background under the rank stars in order to distinguish himself from other officers who may hold the same rank.

Neighbourhood watch

A neighbourhood watch (Italian: Polizia Vicinale, PV) is a MVSN-organized group of Fascists devoted to crime and vandalism prevention within a neighbourhood, mostly in urban areas. It is part of the crime prevention scheme under which members of a given community agree together to keep an eye on the whole community, therefore including also others' private properties, reporting suspicious incidents to the police. When a criminal activity is suspected, members are encouraged to report to authorities, and to intervene if the intervention is deemed both necessary and possible.
Neighbourhood watchmen are not subordinated to the Public Security bodies and the management staff is established from both the MVSN and the PNF itself; the membership is free and on voluntary basis, but a convicted or sentenced party member cannot be part of a watch. The patrolling watches themselves are often accompanied by PS, Local police or MVSN officers, for general guidance and official support. Although watches are informal teams, they as private citizens could perform citizen arrests of various petty offenders: drunkards, hooligans, etc. They are also used to support the Public Security in performing minor law enforcement duties. Watchmen on patrol are distinguished by black armbands with the white text "PV" on them worn over PNF party uniforms.

Policing in Italian Empire

The law enforcement in Autonomous Republics of the Italian Empire is carried out according organizational patterns quite different from the Italian model, although still retaining some similarities. The main difference consists of the fact that - with the Montenegrin exception - all police forces are Gendarmerie corps, without the civilian officials and with a reduced role for civilian governors. This is due to a variety of reasons: in Libya the public order conditions are so fragile and poor that the civilian management is unnecessary and generally unfit for a ready response which goes beyond the District boundaries, while in Ethiopia and Somalia the desert areas make unfit a civilian and city-based organization; finally in Eritrea the size of the operational area can be easily controlled from the central authority; finally, in Albania there is a well rooted Gendarmerie tradition and it is a recurring joke to say that Carabinieri managed to survive in a land that is almost Italy.
On the other hand, all autonomous republics have a Ministry of Interior and a Directorate-General of Public (Montenegro, Albania and Ethiopia) National (Libya) General (Somalia) Security (specific names could vary) organized like the Italian Directorate General; these "Autonomous" Directorates General are co-ordinated from Rome, although they do retain significant autonomy about local and non-political matters.

Albanian Gendarmerie

File:Gendarmeria albanese.png

The War Flag of the Albanian Gendarmerie.

The Albanian Gendarmerie (Albanian: Xhandarmëria Shqiptare; Italian: Gendarmeria Albanese) is the Gendarmerie force of the Albanian Social Republic. Being an Albanian militarized police force, it has several entities which has to respond to: for police and security duties the Gendarmerie depends on the Albanian Ministry of Interior; for co-ordination purposes, it depends on the Directorate General of Public Security in Rome; finally, for military purposes it reports to the Army Higher Command Balkans head-quartered in Tirana. It is to be noted that the Albanian Gendarmerie is mainly a preventive force of public security, but it has also detective/repressive duties as a judicial police corps.
The Gendarmerie traces its origins back to 1915, when the Gendarmerie School was established by the Carabinieri. The Mission drafted, adapted from the Italian regulations, Regulations and General Staff as well as borrowed from the Italian model were the type of recruitment (voluntary and selective) and weaponry. During the late 1920s, the Royal Albanian Gendarmerie was re-organized and staffed by British officers as part of the Royal Albanian Army. In 1939, when Albania was annexed to Italy, it was merged with the Carabinieri, constituting the "Carabinieri Higher Command for Albania" (It.: "Comando Superiore Carabinieri per l'Albania"); after the proclamation of the Republic, the Higher Command was transformed in an autonomous Gendarmerie force. The first Commandant General of Albanian descent was Brigadier General Gajur Deralla, who held office from 1957 to 1960. The current Commandant General is Major General Gjon Ulbasoni, who took office in 2012.
The Gendarmerie has a General Command, held by a Major General, a General Staff, a Schools Command, 2 Legions (Gjirokastër and Tirana), 12 battalions (1 per Province), with 48 companies (1 per sub-prefecture) and 102 Territorial Stations. The Gendarmerie has 236 officers, 1,440 subofficers and 8,434 corporals and gendarmes. The Gendarmerie also has a Central Operational Unit (Al: Njësia Operative Qendrore; It: Unità Operativa Centrale) which handles most serious crimes, while for public order duties the Gendarmerie is often supported by the Fascist Militia. The Gendarmerie Schools Command is organized according to military patterns; the Gendarmerie Academy in Valona deals with officer training, while the two Cadet Gendarmes Schools, in Gjirokastër and Tirana, deal with troops training. The Subofficers training is carried out by the Gendarmerie Academy in Valona, which operates the Subofficers School. As for the Italian P.S. organization, Schools and Academy are strategically placed across the Country in order to provide and additional manpower reserve, in case of rebellions or uprisings.

Ranks and insignia

The Albanian Military Star.

The Albanian Gendarmerie is led by a Major General, and therefore there is no Lieutenant General; when the Italian Lieutenant General conducts his inspections and visits, he wears his Italian uniform. From a graphic point of view, the officer insignia pattern is closely modelled on the Italian one, with the Generals' insignia coming from a reform proposal for all the Generals' insignia, also in Italian Corps. All officer rank insignia feature the Star as basic component. Subofficers are the Albanian translation of Italian Marshals, and they are military subofficers like the Italian counterpart: their insignia have the horizontal stripes of the non-Italian subofficers. Finally, enlisted ranks do not have sleeve insignia but shoulder boards depicting their rank; the Albanian Gendarmerie is the only Corps which has such a rank system. Enlisted ranks are six, just as the Italian CPR.
As a whole, the Albanian Gendarmerie is a State military corps, like the Republican Police Corps, and is part of the Italian military system, although its State is the Autonomous Republic of Albania, and not the Italian Social Republic. In order to display this different affiliation, the Albanian Gendarmerie has an its own version of the Military Star. The Albanian Military Star actually is an Italian Military Star surmounted by an Helm of Skanderberg, the Albanian most important national hero. This symbol has been inherited by the Italian Kingdom of Albania, and it is considered by Albanian nationalists a proud distinction.

Albanian Gendarmerie military officers ranks and insignia
Albanian Gendarmerie rank	Nëntoger	Toger	Kapiten	Major	Nënkolonel	Kolonel	Gjeneralbrigad	Gjeneralmajor
English translation	Second Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel	Colonel	Brigadier General	Major General
Republican Police Corps rank (also Italian translation)	Sottotenente	Tenente	Capitano	Maggiore	Tenente Colonnello	Colonnello	Brigadier Generale	Maggior Generale
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Sottotenente	Tenente	Capitano	Maggiore	Tenente Colonnello	Colonnello	Generale di Brigata	Generale di Divisione
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Second Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel	Colonel	Brigadier	Major General
Shoulder board insignia

Albanian Gendarmerie Subofficers ranks and insignia
Albanian Gendarmerie rank	Nënzyrtar	Shefi Nënzyrtar	Nënzyrtar Klasa e Pare
Republican Police Corps rank	Maresciallo di P.S.	Maresciallo Capo di P.S.	Maresciallo Maggiore di P.S.
Italian translation	Sottufficiale	Sottufficiale Capo	Sottufficiale di Prima Classe
English translation	Subofficer	Chief Subofficer	Subofficer First Class
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Maresciallo	Maresciallo Capo	Maresciallo Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Warrant Officer Class Two	Warrant Officer Second Class	Warrant Officer First Class
Shoulder board insignia

Public Security military Enlisted ranks and insignia
Albanian Gendarmerie rank	Xhandar	Xhandar Klasa e Parë	Tetar	Shefi Tetar	Rreshster	Kapter i Parë
Republican Police Corps rank	Agente	Agente Scelto	Appuntato	Appuntato Capo	Vicebrigadiere	Brigadiere
English translation	Gendarme	Gendarme First Class	Corporal	Chief Corporal	Sergeant	Sergeant Major
Italian translation	Gendarme	Gendarme di Prima Classe	Caporale	Caporale Capo	Sergente	Sergente Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Soldato	Caporale	Caporale maggiore	Caporale Capo	Sergente	Sergente Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Private	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Staff Sergeant	Staff Sergeant (senior echelon)
Shoulder board insignia

Libyan Gendarmerie

The Libyan Republican Gendarmerie (Arabic: الدرك الليبي الجمهورية الجماهير; al-Darak al-Jamhariyya al-‘Lybyia, Italian: Gendarmeria Repubblicana Libica) is the police force of Italian Libya. It is commanded by a Major General who reports directly to the Chief of the Libyan Social Republic, as well as to the proper government and military structures; the Gendarmerie operates into a fragile environment, severely damaged by the 2011 revolt. In 2013 the Gendarmerie consists of 30,000 officers and troops. The current Commandant General is Major General Umar Abdullah el-Muhayshi, the third Commandant General of Libyan (African) descent, while Osama al-Juwaili is the Chief of Staff. Being a Libyan militarized police force, it has several entities which has to respond to: for local police and security duties the Gendarmerie depends on the Libyan Ministry of Interior and from the Directorate General of National Security; for co-ordination purposes, it depends on the Directorate General of Public Security in Rome; finally, for military purposes it reports to the Army Higher Command Libya head-quartered in Tripoli. It is to be noted that the Gendarmerie is mainly a preventive force of public security, but it has also detective/repressive duties as a judicial police corps. In public order services, the Gendarmerie is often assisted by the Libyan GNR, also due to the dangerous challenges it must face. Gendarmerie ranks follow closely those of the Italian Armed Forces, albeit translated. An officer candidate has to be a Libyan or Italian citizen at least twenty years of age, of good conduct and Fascist behaviour, in good physical condition, and not married to a foreigner.
The Libyan Gendarmerie traces its origins back to the Zaptié colonial gendarmerie raised by Italian governors. In Tripolitania and Cyrenaica the zaptié were generally used for patrolling rural areas in coastal regions, while mounted police operated in the southern desert regions. In 1953 the Zaptié were transformed into the then-Colonial Gendarmerie, with the former Carabinieri officers permanently assigned - upon their request - to the Colony in order to train and organize the new force. In 1963 the Libyan colony was disestablished and in its place the Mediterranean Special Government Region was created: this elevation coincided with the creation of the Libyan Gendarmerie; in 1971 new separate agencies to handle civil defence and fire protection were provided for by law, and in 1978 the first officer of African descent was appointed Chief of Staff, while the first Commandant General of African descent was Ahmed Abdelaziz al Mukthiri, who took office from 1989 to 1992. Nowadays , the Italian Libyan community still provide a steady flow of recruits, while internal nomadic tribes are under-represented.
The Gendarmerie is organized into a General Command (Commandant and General Staff), head-quartered in Tripoli and four Legions (Tunis, Tripoli, Benghazi and Sabha), which correspond to the four regions of Libya; the Sabha Legion, responsible for Fezzan surveillance, consists of few fixed units and highly mobile patrols, while the other three Legions are organized on Battalions (25, one per District), 104 Companies and 312 territorial stations. The Officer training is conducted both in Tripoli and in Rome, specialist and technical training is performed in Tunis, while Subofficers and troops schools are established in Benghazi and in Sabha.
The Directorate General of National Security is the civilian governing body of the Libyan Gendarmerie; the Director General of the National Security is at the same time the Commandant General of the Gendarmerie, although the two offices are kept distinct. The Directorate General has four subordinate Divisions (Border and Immigration Control; Inspection and Audit; Legal Affairs; Public Relations) which deal with surveillance and strategic policies, while the Gendarmerie has, subordinate to the Commandant and to the General Staff, six central commands: Training, Criminal Intelligence, Traffic and Highway Security, Ports Security, Information Security and Operations.
While Tunis, Tripoli and Benghazi Legions are each directed by a Brigadier General, with a Colonel as Chief of Staff, District Battalions are ordinarily led by Lieutenant Colonels, although Benghazi, Tripoli and Tunis Battalions are led by full Colonels; each Battalion has 4 Companies (each commanded by a Captain), who are directly responsible for the whole District, with the Capital town treated in the same way of the countryside. The four additional Companies are employed for the major cities (Benghazi, Tripoli and Tunis) and for the General Head-quarters of both the Directorate and the Ministry. Territorial Stations of the Libyan Gendarmerie are detachments of the Companies, and have little formal autonomy, although de facto they have to manage all non-sensitive issues. Stations can be commanded by Lieutenants, or by Marshals.

Libyan training

The training of the Libyan Gendarmerie is operated by CPR officers, and it is designed in order to restore public faith into the police system, and to make Libyan Gendarmes trustworthy; this, in a social context where weapons are now widespread and the sectarian/ethnic/tribal revolt bordered civil war and still remains a threat. At their arrival at training camps, Libyan trainees are deprived of weapons, cameras, and recording devices, given a physical examination, and subjected to identification procedures. The P.S. training program consists of basic, intermediate, and advanced courses in both police and military skills; advanced levels of training are reserved for outstanding graduates who are groomed as instructors. The training includes a leadership package for officers and subofficers on management-related subjects. The P.S. also provide training in specialized skills, such as VIP close protection, sharpshooting, and self-defence.
The objectives of the training are to develop the trainees’ physical and motivational skills, instruct trainees in technical subjects, develop a culture of safety in training and operations, and promote respect for law and moderate restraint in the use of force. Basic training is provided in three month-long courses separated by two one-week breaks. Trainees have to pass a final examination in physical conditioning and police and military skills. High performers are trained as instructors and as elite units. Poor performers are dismissed from the training. The most important aspect of the P.S. training is the extensive amount of time spent with trainees in discussing the role of police in a peaceful society and the moral and ethical responsibilities of a police officer in performing his duties. To introduce a spiritual element into the training and build relationships with trainees, the Italian training includes the Gendarme Prayer, that they say every day with the Libyan students both to demonstrate their own spirituality and to tap into the religious fervour of many of their students.

Ranks and insignia

The Libyan Gendarmerie is led by a Major General, and therefore there is no Lieutenant General; when the Italian Lieutenant General conducts his inspections and visits, he wears his Italian uniform. From a graphic point of view, the officer insignia pattern is closely modelled on the Arab trend (at least trend used by secularist and social republics), with the stars numbers adapted to the Italian usage. All officer rank insignia feature the Star as basic component.
Warrant Officers are the Libyan translation of Italian Marshals, and they are military subofficers like the Italian counterpart: their insignia have the horizontal stripes of the non-Italian subofficers. Finally, enlisted ranks have sleeve insignia. Enlisted ranks are six, just as the Italian CPR.
As a whole, the Libyan Gendarmerie is a State military corps, like the Republican Police Corps, and is part of the Italian military system, although its State is the Autonomous Republic of Libya, and not the Italian Social Republic strictu sensu.

Libyan Gendarmerie military officers ranks and insignia
Libyan Gendarmerie rank (Official transcription only)	Mulazim	Mulazim Awwal	Naqib	Raid	Muqaddam	Aqid	Amid	Liwa
English translation	Second Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel	Colonel	Brigadier General	Major General
Republican Police Corps rank (also Italian translation)	Sottotenente	Tenente	Capitano	Maggiore	Tenente Colonnello	Colonnello	Brigadier Generale	Maggior Generale
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Sottotenente	Tenente	Capitano	Maggiore	Tenente Colonnello	Colonnello	Generale di Brigata	Generale di Divisione
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Second Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel	Colonel	Brigadier	Major General
Shoulder board insignia

Libyan Gendarmerie Warrant Officers ranks and insignia
Libyan Gendarmerie rank (Official transcription only)	Mussaid	Mussaid Thani	Mussaid Awwal
Republican Police Corps rank	Maresciallo di P.S.	Maresciallo Capo di P.S.	Maresciallo Maggiore di P.S.
Italian translation	Sottufficiale	Sottufficiale Capo	Sottufficiale Maggiore
English translation	Warrant Officer	Chief Warrant Officer	Warrant Officer Major
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Maresciallo	Maresciallo Capo	Maresciallo Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Warrant Officer Class Two	Warrant Officer Second Class	Warrant Officer First Class
Shoulder board insignia

Public Security military Enlisted ranks and insignia
Libyan Gendarmerie rank (Official transcription only)	Jundi	Jundi Awwal	Areef	Raqib	Raqib Thani	Raqib Awwal
Republican Police Corps rank	Agente	Agente Scelto	Appuntato	Appuntato Capo	Vicebrigadiere	Brigadiere
English translation	Soldier	Soldier First Class	Corporal	Chief Corporal	Sergeant	Sergeant Major
Italian translation	Soldato	Soldato di Prima Classe	Caporale	Sergente	Sergente Capo	Sergente Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (Italian)	Soldato	Caporale	Caporale maggiore	Caporale Capo	Sergente	Sergente Maggiore
Corresponding Army rank (English)	Private	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Staff Sergeant	Staff Sergeant (senior echelon)
Sleeve insignia	No insignia
Shoulder board insignia

Related voices

• Ministry of Interior of the Italian Social Republic
• M.V.S.N. (Italian Social Republic)
• National Republican Guard (Italian Social Republic)
• O.V.R.A. (Italian Social Republic)