Draft:Operation Strade sicure

A vehicle from Operation Safe Streets in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna. Taken May, 2015.

An Iveco LMV vehicle at the Dobbiaco station (South Tyrol)

Operation Safe Streets (Italian: Operazione Strade sicure) is a public security support operation launched in Italy in 2008 by the Fourth Berlusconi government and extended several times over the years, consisting of the use of the Italian armed forces personnel in the fight against crime. There are currently around 7,000 Italian Army soldiers involved in the operation.

History

It was established with the legislative decree of 23 May 2008, no. 92 - subsequently converted into law 24 July 2008, n.125. The first activities began on August 4th of the same year. From 7 February 2011, pursuant to law no. 220 of 13 December 2010 (stability law 2011), the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway was also placed under surveillance. It was extended several times with legislative decree no. 78 of 1 July 2009, until December 31st, 2013 (law no. 135 of 7 August 2012) and also for all of 2014. The operation was then extended until June 30th of 2015, with an increase in the number of army personnel employed - from 3,000 to 4,500 units - and by 600 for Expo 2015, subsequently until December 31st of the same year and then further extended for the following years. The Court of Auditors, in its Resolution no. 4/2013/G[], gave a positive opinion on the operation, as a whole, not finding any gaps or anomalies in the management of the funds allocated for these activities. The doubts raised concern a gap between the expenditure forecasts of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the costs actually sustained by the Ministry of Defence, the misalignment between the economic treatment reserved for Army operators and that of Police and Carabinieri agents, as well as the use of soldiers in reconnaissance and patrol activities: the judges, in fact, believe that their use in surveillance services at sensitive sites and objectives is more effective. In total, 383.6 million euros were spent, of which 358.30 million were for the mobilization of the Army and 25.30 for the police forces. In 2016, Operation Strade Sicure and Operation Terra dei fuochi required 83 million euros to operate.

Activities

It makes the personnel of the Italian armed forces available to the prefects of some provinces for the protection of of public order, the fight against petty crime and the surveillance of sites and objectives deemed sensitive, attributing to such personnel the status of public security agents with the extension of the faculties set forth in Article 4 of Law No. 152 (Royal Law), as well as reconnaissance and patrolling in conjunction and jointly with the police forces in order to increase deterrence against petty crime and for surveillance services at "sensitive" sites and objectives, as well as to carry out territorial control operations in metropolitan or densely populated areas. The planning and coordination of the operation was entrusted to the Joint Forces Operational Command (COI).

The activity includes patrolling streets and/or guarding sensitive objectives (such as first reception centers, identification and deportation centers), and takes place in thirty-eight cities: Rome, Milan, Florence, Naples, Vercelli, Verona, Turin, Chiomonte, Bologna, Treviso, Casert, L'Aquila, Catania, Vittoria, Palermo, Messina, Gela, Reggio Calabria, Modena, Gorizia, Crotone, Lamezia Terme, Catanzaro, Foggia, Bari, Brindisi, Trapani, Caltanissetta, Bergamo, Pisa, Pordenone, Monza, Brescia, Parma, Prato, Venice, Mestre, Padua, Agrigento, Ancona, Pescara, Rimini, Salerno, Genoa, Vicenza and other cities in Italy.

Equipment

The vehicles used in the operations include the Iveco VM90, Iveco LMV, Land Rover Defender, Jeep Wrangler, and Jeep Renegade.

The Italian Army soldiers involved in the operation have been given the qualification of "public safety agent", excluding the functions of "judicial police agent". They can also identify and search people or means of transport and carry out joint or non-joint checkpoints or road blocks.

The personnel employed at the beginning belonged to the Italian Army (initially 2700), the Navy (initially 220), the Air Force (initially 80) for a maximum of 3,000 units, 2,700 of which from the Italian Army, increased by 1,250 units following the 2009 extension, which also increased the number of cities in which to deploy such personnel.

The soldiers employed in the operation are equipped with combat uniform and specialty headgear, with the addition pf bulletproof vests or combat jackets, and gas masks. The soldiers employed are armed with batons, Beretta ARX160s, Beretta AR70/90s, and Beretta PB 92 FSs.

Criticism

The operation was criticized by many because the use of armed forces was supposedly dictated by an ideological operation for political propaganda by the Fourth Berlusconi government; moreover, the 2008 decree introduced a series of provisions on criminal law, such as the crime of illegal immigration. According to the CGIL, the extension of the operation would be a mere political propaganda choice, to hide the problems regarding the lack of funds and staff of the Italian police forces, as highlighted in a dossier released in August 2014 by the same union, produced together with SILP.

See also

• Fourth Berlusconi government