Police recruitment exams, intelligence checks on candidates
Under the draft bill on youth crime and the so-called ‘maranza’, recently approved by the Council of Ministers, the requirement of reliability – as laid down in the law establishing the Information System for the Security of the Republic – must be met in order to qualify for roles and career paths within the State Police
Anyone aspiring to become a police officer may be subject to a preliminary intelligence check, aimed at verifying that the candidate meets the reliability requirement. As reported by Infodifesa, this scenario is outlined in a passage from the draft bill on youth crime and the so-called ‘maranza’, approved on 23 July by the Council of Ministers. The ‘controversial’ provision appears at the end of Article 19 of the text, in its most recent version. It is the passage concerning ‘provisions regarding eligibility requirements for entry into the ranks and promotion examinations of the State Police’.
The passage
Paragraph 2 provides that, in Article 3 of Legislative Decree No. 95 of 29 May 2017, the following shall be inserted after paragraph 7-septies: ‘7-octies. For the purposes of access, through a public competitive examination, to the grades of the roles and career paths within the State Police, the requirement of good character referred to in Article 9 of Law No. 124 of 3 August 2007 must be met.’
The reliability requirement
The requirement for reliability is laid down in the law establishing the Republic’s Security Information System (Law 124). Article 9, in particular, provides for the security clearance, which is issued by the UCSe, the Central Office for Secrecy, an intelligence body operating within the DIS (Department of Security Information).
Security Clearance
The issue of the NOS is subject to the completion of a prior vetting procedure designed to prevent any person who does not provide a reliable assurance of scrupulous loyalty to the institutions of the Republic, the Constitution and its values, as well as strict respect for confidentiality, from having access to classified information, documents, records or items.
For members of the State Police (and, more generally, for law enforcement agencies), the ‘reliability requirement’ entails exemplary conduct, the absence of any criminal or disciplinary impediments, and full psychological, physical and attitudinal suitability to carry out sensitive public security duties.
