New Highway Code: the Carabinieri’s trade unions say: ‘From driving licences to the collection of fines, we’re burdened with too much red tape’

A number of trade unions within the Carabinieri have raised the alarm over certain provisions currently set out in the text of the new Highway Code. From Usmia Carabinieri to Sim Carabinieri, there has been no shortage of criticism of the draft legislative decree revising the code. Particular scrutiny has been directed at measures affecting three areas: driving licences, payment by instalments and the collection of fines. The message is that, if these measures are ultimately approved by Parliament as they stand, they risk increasing the bureaucratic burden placed on Carabinieri stations. Hence the slogan: ‘More bureaucracy in the stations, less security in the community’. The provisions contained in the bill risk leading to an increase in the administrative burdens borne by the enforcement agencies.

“Carabinieri stations must have more and more time and resources to devote to their primary mission: maintaining a presence in the community, preventing crime, listening to citizens and ensuring local security,” emphasised Carmine Caforio, general secretary of Usmia Carabinieri. “Whilst the Commander-General of the Carabinieri, Salvatore Luongo, is working to minimise bureaucratic burdens and strengthen the stations by requesting new resources to make up for the shortfall of around 10,000 Carabinieri and ensure increasingly effective and widespread local policing, new responsibilities risk diverting precious resources away from local policing’, he added.

The General Secretary of Sim Carabinieri, Antonio Serpi, has no doubts: the current draft legislative decree ‘turns the Carabinieri into tax registry clerks and enforcement officers, clearing the streets to the detriment of their role in policing the territory whilst, at the same time, flooding the barracks with paperwork’.

“We are closely monitoring the new provisions relating to temporary driving licences, the payment of fines in instalments and enforced collection,” explained Caforio. These involve further investigations, checks, notifications and responsibilities that risk falling on the departments, tying up staff who are currently essential to ensuring operational services. We cannot ask the police stations to do more and more whilst, at the same time, burdening them with new bureaucratic obligations, especially at a time when new criminal trends linked to illegal immigration are causing particular concern and staff shortages are acutely felt in local police stations.”

Usmia Carabinieri therefore considers it necessary that, as the legislative process continues, the distribution of responsibilities be carefully assessed, ensuring that those administrative tasks requiring asset investigations and specialist procedures remain with the Prefectures, whilst avoiding placing a further burden on the investigating bodies, which are already strained by a chronic shortage of staff.