From the knife crackdown to metal detectors: upcoming security measures

The security package (currently a decree and a bill) accelerates. But the summit at Palazzo Chigi convened by the Prime Minister, who has just returned from her mission in Asia, will be decisive on the timing. It will be the occasion to take stock. The package still needs some fine-tuning. And it is very unlikely that it will be dismissed in this afternoon's CDM. Not least because the measures that will enter into the decree immediately and those that will remain in the bill, to be discussed (and modified) in parliament before the go-ahead, must be defined.

After pressure from the League, rules to combat the use of knives are on the way to being included in the decree. Current events, with the recent cases of stabbings between young people and the death of the 18-year-old boy in La Spezia who was shot dead by a classmate, seem to require immediate action. Even though just yesterday the Viminale released data certifying a 15% drop in homicides and an 18% drop in feminicides in particular by 2025.

On the League's other request, i.e. more effective repatriations for foreign minors committing crimes who have arrived in Italy without relatives, there are instead critical issues that the Viminale is evaluating. Especially since, as an Fdi heavyweight like Francesco Filini points out, 'we can also imagine repatriating irregular minors who commit crimes in Italy, but we have some problems with repatriations and it concerns above all judges who very often avoid doing them'.As for the interlocution with the Quirinale, it has just begun. At the Hill they are waiting for the final package for an examination that will obviously be scrupulous, given that already in the previous security decree the Head of State had some rules removed.

In the new security decree, in addition to the extension of the 'red zones' from which to expel criminals or persons considered dangerous and the increase in cameras, there should also be a draconian crackdown on knives: an absolute ban on the carrying of knives with blades longer than 5 centimetres, punishable by imprisonment from 1 to 3 years with an increase in punishment if the crime is committed in groups or in the vicinity of schools and railway stations; fines for parents if the carrying of knives concerns minors; a ban on the sale of cutting weapons to minors - also on the web -; optional arrest in flagrante delicto also for the illegal carrying of knives.

While the measures currently contained in the bill include, among others, harsher penalties for pickpocketing and housebreaking, a stop to automatic registration in the register of suspects for law enforcement officers and ordinary citizens who use weapons to defend themselves, the return to their home state of subjects who are 'dangerous' to state security, and a tightening of the categories of family members for whom reunification can be requested.