Territorial organization of the Royal Carabinieri (Kingdom of Italy)
The main and foremost focus of the Royal Carabinieri is their territorial organisation, aiming to be present in every inhabited centre. The different levels of the territorial organization carry out, on the territory within which they are established, the missions of judicial police and administrative police devolved to the Royal Carabinieri.
The operational focus is the Provincial Command, which is further subdivided into Detachments, Companies, Lieutenancies and Stations; on the other hand, the Provincial Command is framed within Legion and Inter-Regional Commands. The 75% of he Royal Carabinieri belongs to the Territorial Organization.
Interregional Commands
The Carabinieri Interregional Commands (Comandi Interregionali Carabinieri) are 5 interregional commands linking the General Command and the lower echelons and serving to ensure the functioning of the system. All the Interregional Commands are based in Regional capital cities or towns, with the exception of the North East Interregional Command, which is based in Padua.
Each Carabinieri Interregional Command is considered an Army Corps command and it is led by a Army Corps General. Current Commands are:
- 1st Carabinieri Interregional Command "Pastrengo" (established in 1936): HQs in Milan and in charge for Lombardy, Piedmont and Savoy, Liguria and Aosta Valley;
- 2nd Carabinieri Interregional Command "Podgora" (established in 1936): HQs in Rome and in charge for Tuscany, Lazio, Rome, Marche, Umbria, Corsica and Sardinia;
- 3rd Carabinieri Interregional Command "Ogaden" (established in 1939): HQs in Naples and in charge for Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, Molise and Abruzzo;
- 4th Carabinieri Interregional Command "Carabinieri dello Stretto" (established in 1991): HQs Messina and in charge for Calabria and Sicily; the 4th CC.RR. Division was established by splitting the 3rd Division.
- 5th Carabinieri Interregional Command "Vittorio Veneto" (established in 1991): HQs in Padua and in charge for Trentino-Alto Adige, Emilia and Romagna, Veneto, Friuli, Venezia Giulia and Istria and Dalmatia; the 5th CC.RR. Division was established by splitting the 1st CC.RR. Division.
Functions
The Interregional Commands operate reporting to the Commandant-General and to the Chief of Police for the exercise of the decentralised inspection and control functions in all offices and peripheral organs within their boundaries and for the carrying out of the decentralised organisational and administrative functions. The Interregional Commands also carry out the direct and constant surveillance of the territory, and 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.
These Commands are tasked with personnel general management, as well as training co-ordination of the Legions and administrative support. The Interregional Commands have therefore tasks of direction, coordination and control of the Legions and Provincial Commands (and not operational tasks). The Interregional Commands also assure the technical, logistical and administrative support of all the CC.RR. units located in their own territory, even if belonging to another organization within the Carabinieri, through the Administrative Logistic Technical Grouping.
The Interregional Commands 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 Interregional Commands authorise absence, which is programmable not predictable, of the medical and paramedical staff.
The fact that the Interregional Command reports only and directly to the Chief of Police and to the Commandant-General determines that it can be used (and sometimes it is actually used) to bypass both nationwide Commands and provincial Prefects; this allows a strengthening of the Provincial Command's technical say, against the local Prefect's opinion, which may not be so technically qualified. The Interregional Command also functions as collector from logistics and support services Divisions, in order to provide an unified management.
Organisation
The Interregional Command is a complex body consisting of numerous offices and subdivisions:
- Interregional Commander;
- Staff;
- Administrative Logistic Technical Grouping;
- Health service Office;
- Operations Office;
- Crime Section: the Crime Section deals with organized crime, especially oriented towards trafficking in persons and other sexual offences;
- Interregional Cabinet of Scientific Police;
- TLC Office;
- Military Police Section
- Planning Office.
The Interregional Commander is assisted by the Aide-de-Camp and by the Secretariat. In particular, the Secretariat takes care of the activities entrusted by the Commander, in particular the arrangement of correspondence and the negotiations for which the Commander is responsible.
Interregional Commander
The Interregional Commander commands and leads the Interregional Command. He exercises direct command over the subordinate Legions and oversees the regular performance of services and administration discipline, within their respective jurisdiction. The Interregional Commander also proposes to the General Command the measures necessary to ensure the uniformity and regularity of the functioning of the subordinate Units of the Royal Carabinieri and keeps the General Command itself informed of the most important questions that lie ahead regarding their general progress.
With regard to subordinate personnel, the Interregional Commander arranges the transfer of subofficers and enlisted soldiers from one subordinate command to another and grants licenses to the Legion's general commanding officers and to the commanders of the recruiting and educational establishments, placed under them or in their jurisdiction.
For the purposes of career progression, the Interregional Commander expresses the final judgment on applications for admission of aspirants to compete for advancement by choice and on those for admission to the competition of Marshals Major aspiring to be appointed to special offices.
For the purposes of high supervision, the Interregional Commander visits, when there is a reason, the subordinate commands to get acquainted with the activity and performance of the officers and the matters of greater importance and to regulate relations between the hierarchical commands on the basis of the practical needs of the service and the respective competences.
The Interregional Commander is a General officer ranking Army Corps General. If the Interregional Commander also holds the command of the M.V.S.N. within the same jurisdiction, he carries the title of Higher Militia and Public Security Leader, regardless of the actual rank.
Administrative Logistic Technical Grouping
The Administrative Logistic Technical Grouping (Raggruppamento Tecnico, Logistico e Amministrativo, R.T.L.A.) is the body tasked to handle all support duties. The Grouping consists of offices, services and all the executive bodies (such as infirmaries, workshops and telematic laboratories) that work for the Carabinieri departments located in the area covered by the interregional command. The R.T.L.A. is subdivided into four Sections:
- Inspection and Audit Section;
- Logistic Suppot Section;
- General Affairs and Personnel Affairs Section;
- Procurement Section.
Logistic Suppot Section
The Logistic Suppot Section operates as an executive logistic body and guarantees the reception, storage, conservation and distribution of clothing and equipment materials, housing, special combat food rations to be allocated to the Interregional Command to which it belongs, as well as the fourth line of maintenance of mobile field vehicles and tenting materials in use at the units and commands of the Carabinieri. The Center meets the logistical needs of Carabinieri within the boundaries of the relevant Interregional Command.
General Affairs and Personnel Affairs Section
The General Affairs and Personnel Affairs Section is divided into three Ofices: General Affairs Office, Personnel Affairs Office, Litigation Office.
The General Affairs Office guarantees the fulfillment of the tasks concerning "general affairs", relations with the public and "social protection". The Office acts as an intermediary between the General Command and the regional level: it directs the correct application of the instructions given by the General Command or the Interregional Command in the sectors of respective interest, intervening with specific directives, taking care of relations between the employees of the Regional Command employee and those of the General Command. The General Affairs Office also provides the general protocol and archive activities and performs any other task delegated or delegated by the General Command and oversees the planning and execution of the inspections of the Commander to the dependent departments.
The Personnel Affairs Office ensures the management of its personnel (officers, marshals and troops), including training activities. The Office avails itself of the "Matriculation Section" of the Legion Command for the management of Non-commissioned Officers and Troops, directs the correct application of the provisions governing the employment of personnel, gives detailed instructions in relation to the provisions of the General Command, directs reports between the corresponding articulations of the Legion Command employee and those of the General Command and ensures the fulfillment of any other task delegated or delegated by the General Command. The Personnel Affairs Office also manages administrative procedures in the field of discipline.
The Litigation Office provides all the preliminary activities for the decision of the hierarchical appeals against acts and measures adopted by the officers under examination; moreover, it sends opinions on external litigation (civil or criminal).
Operations Office
The Operations Office is divided into two sections. The 1st Section ensures the fulfillment of the duties related to the operational activity, expresses its opinion in the discussions concerning the attribution of the name of the buildings in use to the dependent departments and the construction of stones, gravestones and related monuments, performs any other task delegated . The 2nd Section verifies the adequacy of the subordinate departments in the performance of the service, defining the operational priorities.
Carabinieri Legion
The Royal Carabinieri Legion (Legione Carabinieri Reali) is a multi-provincial CC.RR. command in the territory of an Administrative Region. The boundaries of the Carabinieri Legions coincide with the boundaries of the Courts of Appeal and Assize, and with those of the special (anti-terrorism and anti-mafia) prosecution pools. The Royal Carabinieri Legions are responsible for organizing and mobilizing policing in each Region, adapting the Royal Carabinieri's action to local realities. All the Carabinieri Legions are based in the Regional capital cities or towns, with the exception of the Veneto Royal Carabinieri Legion, which is based in Padua, alongside the North-eastern Interregional Command.
The Provincial Commands depend on the relevant Legion command. When the Legion Command controls only one Provincial Command (i.e. in Rome and in Umbria) the Provincial Command is merged with the Legion organization; internal control functions are entrusted to the relevant Interregional Command.
The Carabinieri Legion is a territorial military unit of the Royal Carabinieri with functions of control and coordination of the Provincial Commands and prevalent public order functions. Carabinieri Legion responsibilities include mainly logistics support and other functions; Legion commanders also provide coordination of the Carabinieri activities in the territory of the subordinate commands, allocation of their personnel, for extraordinary tasks, for special military, public security or public order requirements, if necessary in conjunction with the military authorities or with the competent Prefect and Provincial Commander. Furthermore, the Carabinieri Legion is responsible for the entire region of personnel management.
Legion Commander
The Legion Commander exercises direct command over the Legion Commands and other CC.RR. Units of the jurisdiction, carrying out a high level of supervision over the progress of the discipline and of the institute services. Legion Commanders send the appropriate proposals to the Interregional Commands and to the other competent Authorities.
The Legion Commander proposes to the Interregional Command the measures necessary to ensure the regular functioning of the subordinate Units of the Royal Carabinieri and keeps both the General Command and Interregional Commands informed of their progress and their needs. On the other hand, the Legion Commander directs and advises the directly subordinate commanders and those subordinate to them by intervening, when necessary, with measures aimed at giving good direction to each branch of the service.
The Legion Commander also makes sure that the subordinate commands are well prepared to disengage the tasks that fall to them in the event of mobilization and that the related arrangements are kept constantly up-to-date with the superior directives and inspired, for their execution, by criteria of speed and practicality, preside over the education and professional training of subordinate officers, paying particular attention to the preparation of new lieutenants admitted to the Royal Carabinieri.
Legion Commanders order the transfer of subofficers and enlisted soldiers from one subordinate command to another and grant licenses to subordinate commanders.
Being in command of the mainstay public security echelons, Legion Commanders also carry out those special tasks that, due to events of particular importance, the Ministry of the Interior requests to entrust them and, upon special assignment that the General Command should - at the request of the Ministry of National Defence or that of the Interior - entrust them, for special military, public security or public order needs, they provide - in concert with the Military Authorities or even with the competent Prefect - also for the coordination of the services of the Royal Carabinieri in the territory of the subordinate Commands and for the distribution of the personnel assigned to them, for extraordinary institutional tasks.
For the purposes of the high supervision of the dependent commands, the Legion Commander:
- Visits each of the subordinate Provincial Command once a year;
- Visits individually those officer commands where, for some determined reason, a check may prove useful, bearing in mind that this, while it must refer to the general performance of the command visited and of the dependent bodies, must not go down to the Station, if not to evaluate command actions consequences.
Legion Deputy Commander
The Legion Deputy Commander follows the life and activity of the Legion, as the first and direct collaborator of the Legion Commander, through the daily vision of the correspondence and through the vision of the news provided by the Chief of Staff (Adjutant Major) and the chiefs of offices and services. The Legion Deputy Commander keeps abreast of the most important practices and carries out the inspections on the service and the disciplinary investigations that the Legion Commander entrusts to him.
The Legion Deputy Commander assumes by right and with all the attributions provided for by the regulations and provisions in force, the Command of the Legion, in the absence of the Legion Commander, conforming to his guidelines.
Organization
The Royal Carabinieri Legion is commanded by a Brigade General, who employs a Deputy Commander and a Chief of Staff. The Legion Commander also directs the Legion Public Security Service, in order to provide data and information management in the security and police field, as well as the Legion Administrative and Social Police Office and the Legion Mobile Platoon.
Legion Staff
The Royal Carabinieri Legion Staff is the support body of the Legion Commander, and is structured on a Legion Staff that has:
- Command Unit;
- Secretariat and Personnel office: directed by the Adjutant Major;
- Organisation, Training, Information, Operations Office;
- Security Secretariat;
- Signals and Chypher Service;
- National shooting Office;
- Logistics office;
- Administrative service: directed by a senior officer;
- Financial Management Section;
- Office of spiritual assistance: directed by a military chaplain
- Legion infirmary.
Legion Public Security Service
The Legion Service of Public Security is mainly dedicated to the data and information collection management, and its administrative structure reflects the tasks entrusted with three information management-related Offices:
- General Affairs Office;
- Supervision Section;
- Audit Section;
- Publicity and Public Relations Section;
- Personnel Section;
- Legion Counter Terrorism Office;
- Legion Domestic Security Office;
- Legion Criminal data management Office;
- Legion Administrative and Social Police Office;
- Legion Cabinet of Scientific Police.
The Legion Services of Public Security, and especially their terrorism and domestic security branches, are the regional terminals of the Intelligence Serivice, fully integrated within its structure.
Legion Counter Terrorism Office
The Regional Counter Terrorism Office brings together intelligence, operations and investigation functions to help prevent, disrupt and prosecute terrorist activities. The Offices are framed within the Regional Service of Public Security and are composed of detectives, financial and cyber investigators, community contact teams, intelligence analysts, and forensic specialists. Each Regional Counter Terrorism Office is coordinated by the Political Office of the seat of the relevant Regional Service, which provides coordination and support for Political Offices of its respective region. Provincial Political Offices assist in protecting national security and are managed and tasked by the Regional Counter Terrorism Division for affairs pertaining terrorism. The Office, while working in close cooperation with the Regional Domestic Security Office and although it is not tasked with operational and judicial police functions, is directly linked to both the Political Police Division and the Confidential Affairs Division at the central level. The Office is subdivided into four Sections and one operational Unit:
- Points of entry Section;
- Analysis Section;
- Coordination Section;
- Economic Crime Information Section: it is to note that the Economic Crime Information Office of each Division is fully integrated with the other Economic Crime Information Office and with the Regional commands of the Royal Guard of Finance;
- Legion CBRN Protection and Intervention Unit: eminently technical, thi Unit is specially designed to intervene in situations of CBRN threats or risks.
Legion Domestic Security Office
The Domestic Security Office deals with information analysis related to homeland security matters without links to terorrism. The Office, while working in close cooperation with the Regional Counter Terrorism Office and although it is not tasked with operational and judicial police functions, is directly linked to both the Political Police Division and the Confidential Affairs Division at the central level. The Regional Domestic Security Office has liaison officers from the Royal Guard of Finance and it is subdivided into two Sections.
- Economic Crime Information Section: it is to note that the Economic Crime Information Section of each Office is fully integrated with the other Economic Crime Information Office and with the Regional commands of the Royal Guard of Finance;
- Public Order Information Section;
- Protected Persons Unit.
Legion Criminal data management Office
The Legion Criminal Office is charged with regional coordination tasks of the Mobile Squads against organised crime. The Regional Division is also responsible for the fight against organized and specialized crime and delinquency, using a variety of overt and covert investigation techniques, the implementation and control of technical and scientific police and judicial identity means, computer tools and operational documentation to assist investigations, and this, throughout the territory under its jurisdiction.
The Legion Criminal data management Office is part of a national infrastructure set up to provide a meaningful intelligence map of organised crime groups (OCGs) across Italy. The role of the Legion Criminal data management Office is to identify where an intervention is needed to prevent harm locally, by identifying the supply chain of criminal activity and stemming the source, be that drugs, people trafficking or illegal firearms.
The Office is subdivided into five Sections:
- Banditry Section
- Narcotics control Section;
- Criminal Police Centre: the Criminal Police Centres are the peripheral subdivisions of the R.O.S. and have information and investigative tasks against organised crime;
- Smuggling Investigation Section: it is mainly composed of liaison personnel of the Royal Guard of Finance;
- Economic Criminal Section: it is the liaison unit with the Regional Command of the Royal Guard of Finance.
Legion Administrative and Social Police Office
The Regional Administrative and Social Police Office keeps relations with the Administrative Region and its Regional Commissioner in order to better coordinate the activities carried out by the Administrative and Social Police Offices of the local Provincial Commands in relation to the matters whose administrative part is entrusted to the Administrative Region to those of the relevant Local Police.
Legion Mobile Platoon
The Legion Mobile Platoons (Plotoni Mobili Legionali, P.M.L.) are specialized units of the Royal Carabinieri. Each Legion generally includes a Legion Mobile Platoon, commanded by a subofficer or - sometimes - by an officer.
The main missions of the Legion Mobile Platoons are surveillance and intervention on sensitive civilian and military points and reinforcement of territorial units for any event disturbing public order, including emergency intervention in the context of a terrorist attack in support to, or in replacement of, the Quick Reaction Operational Units. A Legion Mobile Platoon may also carry out judicial police missions such as domiciliary arrests as well as other specific security or intervention missions.
In addition, the Legion Mobile Platoons put their skills to the benefit of military police missions and carry out operational territorial defence missions in "reinforced" surveillance and immediate intervention actions.
Most often commanded by a non-commissioned officer, but sometimes by a junior officer, a P.M.L. is generally made up of about thirty Carabinieri. The personnel of the Legion Mobile Platoon receive physical training and training in professional intervention: arms control, shooting, combat sports, tactics. The instruction is done at Battalions. Legion Mobile Platoons are operational 24 hours a day.
Provincial Command
The Provincial Command (Italian: Comando Provinciale) of the Royal Carabinieri is both a territorial command of the Royal Carabinieri, reporting to the Commandant-General of the Royal Carabinieri, and an office of the Directorate-General of Public Security with provincial jurisdiction, reporting to the Ministry of the Interior through the Chief of Police of the Kingdom of Italy. It is led by a Provincial Commander of the Royal Carabinieri. Within the Royal Carabinieri, the Provincial Command is tasked with the direct execution and performance of police and security services. Every Provincial Command has its seat in the capital city of the province, depending on the relevant Prefect.
The Provincial Command has general policing responsibility in an administrative province and exercises the command, direction, coordination and control of subordinate units and is the main external reference point of the Royal Carabinieri. The Group has the responsibility of analyzing and fitting of operational activities and criminal law-enforcement in the province also conducted by specialized units. Departments (It: Reparti) and the Judiciary and Services Unit depend directly on the Provincial Command. Finally, each Provincial Command reports, for both preventive and repressive military police duties, to the relevant Army District Command, although it is not part of the Army.
Other personnel assigned to the same city, but not part of the Specialities or other units rely on the Provincial Command only for the purposes of accomodation, food and logistics.
The fundamental feature of the Carabinieri lies in the Provincial Command organisation: every echelon with a jurisdiction over two or more Territorial Stations has a distinct investigation unit (usually qualified a "Operational"): the Provincial Command has an Operational Department (of a level and rank equal to other Departments); every Territorial Department has an Operational Unit (Company-level) and every Company has an Operational Section (Platoon/Lieutenancy-level). On the other hand, Operational bodies rely on the support provided by Territorial Police Stations and Lieutenancies.
Provincial Commander
The 110 Provincial Commands are commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel (in major cities). In a medium-sized city there are usually 1,200 to 1,500 Carabinieri, but considerably more in large cities such as Milan or Naples, where there may be as many as 4,000 CC.RR. members and the Commander of the Provincial Command is a Colonel. In the Governorate of Rome, when the number of police officers is very high, the commander is a Brigade General, functionally subordinated to the Latium Legion.
The Provincial Commander is the propulsor, regulator and coordinator of all the activities of the Arma in the province and carries out its directional action in the framework of the superior directives and the particular requirements of the order and public security of the jurisdiction. He is responsible for the functioning and activity of the Arma in the province, and intervenes in the organization of the information service and of preventive surveillance activity.
In the field of judicial police, the Provincial Commander brings his personal contribution for the investigations to be conducted with assiduous commitment: he coordinates the investigations when they extend to the whole territory of jurisdiction and takes over when the exceptional gravity or particular require it. resonance of the crimes occurred. He must also have a profound knowledge of the province so as to be able to report immediately on facts, events and situations of particular importance.
The Provincial Commander inspects the services performed by the subordinate commands as often as possible, maintains relations with the prefect, with the Questore, with the public prosecutor of the Republic and with the commander of the garrison.
Organization
A Detachment may be a Territorial Department (Reparto Territoriale), grouping Companies in a given part of the Province with scaler organ functions, or may be a Functional Department (Reparto Funzionale), usually headquartered in the provincial capital, in charge of central services. Below the Provincial Group there are the local commands: Companies, which organize Stations and, in larger provincial centers, Lieutenancies. While Companies carry on autonomous existence and operations, both Lieutenancies and Stations are scaler commands, with limited capablities.
In every Province there are at least the Operational Department (Reparto Operativo), which groups the Patrol Car Unit, the Informmation Unit, the Investigative Unit and the Section of Judicial Police; there may be a variable number of Territorial Detachments and Companies. The Provincial Group Commander is usually a Lieutenant Colonel, but in more inhabited provinces the Commander may be a Colonel or even a Brigade General (only in Rome). Territorial Departments also have an Operational Unit (Unità Operativa, in turn grouping the Information Section and the Investigative Section).
In the Arma dei Carabinieri the lieutenant colonels, when they are in charge of the Group Command, perform exquisitely managerial duties, and the captains in charge of the Company Command have executive tasks.
Group Command
The Group Command (Comando di Gruppo) multiplies the functions of direction, coordination and control of some important provincial commands, on which it depend. The Group Command has the same organization of the Provincial Command. Group Commands are commanded by a colonel or a lieutenant colonel.
There are 15 Group Commands: Aosta, Milan, Rho, North Rome, West Rome, Frascati, Naples, Torre Annunziata, Castello di Cisterna, Aversa, Locri, Gioia Tauro, Lamezia Terme, Palermo and Monreale.
Territorial Department and Company
Territorial Department (Reparti Territoriali) and Companies are the territorial Carabinieri garrisons. With the exception of command functions and duties, alongside with particular authorizations they cannot enact, they carry out almost the same role of the Provincial Command within the detective and investigation activities.
In general, there is one Company per District, while Lieutenancies are one per Mandment: however, in particular cases, the rule could be ignored. In every Company there is an Investigation Nucleus and an Information Nucleus (grouped within the Operational Section) and an Autopatrol Detachment, belonging to the Autopatrol Squad, responsible for primary patrolling tasks. The officer in charge is therefore responsible for the activities of the station commands gravitating in that area (variable number 4, 5,6 but also 8 in some cases).
There are two types of Companies: Sectional Companies, which are urban police posts, and Detached Companies, which act as outposts in the Province. The operation jurisdiction of the latter ones is extended on their District, while the Company Commander in charge of the Detached Company is a Local Authority of Public Security only for the municipality which the Detached Company Command is located in.
The Company is directed by an Official of Public Security with the rank of Captain or Major, or in the case of the largest and most important ones, of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Within the Company, 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 or a grievance against government's actions (other than the complaint against a specific administration), and generally make the most of the possible actions of a legal nature.
Territorial Department
The Territorial Department (Reparto Territoriale) is a major subdivision of the Provincial Command, in charge for towns and cities which are not provincial capitals and which do not warrant a Group Command. Each Territorial Department has:
- Command Nucleus;
- Operational and Patrol Car Nucleus:
- Operations Room;
- Operational Squad;
- Patrol Car Squad.
Detached Company
Detached Companies are head-quartered in minor provincial centres and have a police jurisdiction area consisting of rural zones and small centres. The Company Commander is a Captain, who commands not only Carabinieri assigned to the individual relevant Company, but also troops assigned to the various Territorial Police Stations and Lieutenancy in the territory assigned to the Company. Detached Companies are divided into two dimensional categories:
- A Category: includes Companies that are located in areas that require special attention or that oversee large portions of the Province. These Companies have a minimum number of 70 operators, whose direction is entrusted to a Major.
- B Category: includes the Companies that supervise smaller areas of the Province or those that manage quieter areas. These Companies have a staff of at least 50 Carabinieri, and are headed by a Captain.
Each Company may be augmented by the Director-General of Public Security if the need arises.
Sectional Company
In provincial capital cities, on the other hand, the CC.RR. Company is in charge only for the city itself and its immediate surroundings, and the Company Command in charge for all agents assigned to the municipality is head-quartered in the main barracks of the CC.RR. in the province. Sectional Companies are divided into two dimensional categories:
- A Category: includes Companies that are located in areas that require special attention or that oversee large portions of the city. These Companies have a minimum number of 50 operators, whose command is entrusted to a Major or to a Captain.
- B Category: includes the Companies that supervise smaller areas of the urban settlement or those that manage quieter areas. These Companies have a staff of at least 30 Carabinieri, and are headed by a Captain or by a Lieutenant.
Each Company may be augmented by the Director-General of Public Security if the need arises. In the largest cities, subidivided in boroughs, Districts of Public Security (Distretti di Pubblica Sicurezza) may be established, with a boundary coinciding with those of the relevant Borough and coordinating police work of subordinated Sectional Companies with the political and administrative action. Districts also coordinate relevant sectional Companies and are the Provincial Command's territorial interface. The District Head is the most senior Carabinieri officer in the Borough. Sectional Companies do not control the Operational and Patrol Car Nucleus (which is directly under the Group/Provincial Command) but do control:
- Command Nucleus:
- Operational Nucleus;
- Local Mobile Patrols.
Company Commander
The Commander of each Company must ensure and provide order and tranquility of the people within its jurisdiction. For this purpose, the commander maintains frequent contact with the Provincial Group. The reports concerning the judicial sphere are also sent to the local Chief Prosecutor, while those of purely political nature are also sent to the Prefect. The action of the Commander focuses mainly on the monitoring of people dedicated to laziness and vagrancy, as potential serious offenders. Officers who could command a Captaincy are Lieutenent Colonel (very large Companies, usually in charge of co-ordinating some other small Companies as well as in charge of the local Territorial Detachment), Major (average Companies) or Captain (small or less important Companies).
The Company Commander directs, coordinates, activates and monitors the activities of the employee departments, effectively entering into the operating sector with direct personal participation and integrating the preventive and repressive surveillance activity of the subordinate stations. In the event of unrest and disruption of the public order, the Company Commander personally supervises the action of the subordinate units and ensures that the results of the judicial police are positive, intervening in person, where necessary, to direct and coordinate the investigations, and assuming the direction of those concerning the most serious crimes. The Company Commander frequently inspects the services performed by the subordinate stations.
Territorial Police Station
The Territorial Police Station (Italian: Stazione Territoriale di Polizia, STA.TER.) 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 former Savoy-era Royal Carabinieri Stations, and in most cases they are still operated by the Carabinieri. Stations are staffed only with military agents and subofficers, commanded by a Subofficer of the minimum rank of Marshal. The station is responsible in a very specific area: large portions of the civilian infrastructure or city, or one or more municipalities. In the latter case, and outside particular needs, the rule of thumb is an individual Territorial Police Station for each Subdistrict (Mandamento). 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 Royal Carabinieri, 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. 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.
Regardless the category, 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 relevant Company commander for all military, personnel and disciplinary matters, as well as for military, operational and functional police activities. Territorial Police Stations are usually responsible for more than one municipality, but the Carabinieri Marshal 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 Provincial Command or a Detached Company headquarter.
Station Commander
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.
The Station Commander responds personally of the smooth execution of orders and requests he received and, within the limits of his competence, prepares and implements the measures deemed necessary for the maintenance of order and public security, promptly proposing to the direct superior the needs he cannot face or the services he cannot perform. To this end, he keeps abreast of the situation, focusing attention on everything that may directly or indirectly affect the service, so as not to be surprised by the events.
In particular, the Station Commander must direct the services of the station, participating in it himself every time he sees the need, but always heading the most important ones, and must execute or direct the judicial police services, making use, for minor offences, of the work of subordinates for minor investigations; the Station Commander must assume the information, using, for those of minor importance, of the work of the subordinated Carabinieri, must supervise, without prejudice, parties, fairs and public meetings and must visit at least once a month municipalities and fractions included in the territory of the station, in order to constantly keep track of the facts, the events and the local situations.
For reasons of exceptional seriousness and urgency, the Station Commander may request reinforcements or other forms of collaboration from neighboring stations and must in turn adhere to similar requests, informing the direct superior in one case or another. The Station Commander also maintains the necessary relations with the civil and military authorities and provides them with the expected news and information.
Lieutenancy
The Lieutenancies are territorial garrisons, competent on a single municipality with a high number of inhabitants. They provide a 24-hour emergency response service and have independent judicial police activities. From the operational point of view, Lieutenancies are considered as particular Territorial Police Stations with more than 25 Carabinieri.
Lieutenancies are commanded by a Lieutenant, a Second Lieutenant (in most cases coming from the special role, then a former Subofficer), or an experienced Marshal Major - Special Grade.
Temporary stations
Temporary Police Stations (Stazioni Temporanee di Polizia, STA.TEMP.) are set up when it is necessary to supervise a given area, which the definitive competent station cannot supervise with due effectiveness. Like the fixed ones, the Temporary Stations depend on a Company, are administratively autonomous and perform the normal institutional tasks in the territory assigned to them which is therefore subtracted, for the period of their operation, from the relevant stable Territorial Police Stations.
Temporary Stations are established by the General Command at the request of the Legion Commander.
Carabinieri Posts
Carabinieri Posts are detachments from the relevant Territorial Police Station in order to carry out specific tasks. There are two types of Carabinieri Posts:
- Detached Carabinieri Post: Detached Carabinieri Posts have the task of providing, in certain areas of a Territorial Station, for the observation, reporting, first intervention and collection of complaints, as well as for the fulfillment of minor information requests. They depend to all effects on the Territorial Station responsible for the territory and are permanent.
- Fixed Surveillance Post: Fixed Surveillance Posts are set up to meet the particular and exceptional service needs of a given locality, with well-defined powers and tasks. They depend in all respects on the Territorial Station from which they are detached.