Strade Sicure, how many military personnel are used and what could change in 12 questions and answers

While more than 6,000 military personnel are involved in the 'Strade Sicure' operation, some 7400 are deployed abroad, divided into 17 operations and 22 missions, in 25 countries, including Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and Africa.

"Strade Sicure' is 18 years old. It was in fact born on 4 August 2008, following Law 125/2008 - Berlusconi government -, which provided for the possibility of deploying military personnel belonging to the Armed Forces for specific and exceptional crime prevention needs in metropolitan or densely populated areas. Armed Forces personnel are placed at the disposal of the prefects and employed by them for surveillance services at sensitive sites and targets, as well as on patrols and patrols in conjunction with the police forces. Another law (178 of 30 December 2020) extended the operation in relation to the extraordinary needs of preventing and combating crime and terrorism, through the deployment of a contingent of military personnel of the Armed Forces, who act as public security officers in defence of the community, in conjunction with the Police Forces for the policing of the territory and the main metropolitan areas and the surveillance of sensitive sites. The first contingent, made up of 3,000 military personnel for a period of six months, operated at the disposal of the prefects of the provinces to carry out surveillance services at sensitive sites and objectives, including the surveillance of immigration centres, as well as patrolling and patrolling tasks in cooperation and jointly with the Police Forces. Over time, successive legal provisions have varied the number of personnel employed, the duration of the operation and have provided for the collaboration of the Armed Forces in territorial control services to protect sensitive targets and to help prevent and combat terrorism. Lastly, the 2025 manoeuvre extended the deployment of a contingent of 6,000 until 2027.

The latest figures speak of more than 60 million checks carried out on persons and vehicles, since the start of the operation, and more than 100,000 subjects stopped, arrested or reported. The balance of activities includes the seizure of 2,000 weapons, 17,000 vehicles and more than 2.5 tonnes of drugs. As for the controls on the 'Terra dei Fuochi', the involvement of the military allowed the identification of almost 2,000 arson fires and more than 8,300 illegal waste dumping sites, through the use of drones to monitor and survey vast areas.

By specific decisions of the Government, but always within the same operation, additional tasks related to particular security needs of the territory have been assigned. Since 2008, the operation has seen its numerical consistency vary as a result of measures taken during specific events (e.g. EXPO 2015, 'Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy', G7, earthquake in Central Italy and on the Island of Ischia, XXX Universiade and G20 Summit in Rome) or to meet the security needs of some specific areas of the national territory (e.g.: 'Terra dei Fuochi') or in the context of activities related to particular emergencies.terra dei Fuochi") or in the context of activities related to particular emergency situations (e.g. the Covid emergency for which the operation contingent was reinforced with 753 military personnel from May 2020 to March 2022). On the occasion of the Jubilee of Mercy, over 1,500 military personnel, deployed throughout the country and mainly in Rome, guaranteed the security of the Jubilee sites, also by means of a dedicated reinforcement of the Air Defence Force.

The Armed Forces' personnel deployment plan is adopted by decree of the Minister of the Interior, in agreement with the Minister of Defence, after consulting the National Committee for Public Order and Security integrated by the Chief of Defence Staff and after informing the President of the Council of Ministers. The Minister of the Interior reports on the matter to the competent parliamentary commissions. In concrete terms, the military personnel involved in Strade Sicure have the status of public security agents, therefore they carry out identification stops or searches for weapons or drugs or in flagrante delicto. However, they do not have the status of judicial police officers, and therefore cannot carry out investigations on their own initiative, receive complaints or conduct formal interrogations.

The Chief of Staff of the Army is assigned operational control of the interforce operation. At present, the Chief of Staff of the Italian Army is General of the Army Corps Carmine Masiello.

Each soldier, during the preparatory phase for deployment in operations in conjunction with the Police Forces, trains with specific modules focusing on crowd management techniques, elements of first aid ('Basic Life Support'), movement in urban centres and practice of the Military Combat Method (MCM), a close-range combat system, conceived within the Italian Army, which borrows techniques derived from martial arts and combat sports, created to intervene gradually and promptly in any situation.

Are the military also involved in providing security at stations?

A further 12,000 military personnel throughout the country are ready to be deployed on the orders of the political authorities, during the festive season, also for first aid operations and support to the population, with air assets, Genio units, mountain rescue teams and meteo-nivological units. The activity of the Army's bomb disposal unit is also significant, which in 2025 carried out more than 2,300 clearance operations of unexploded ordnance throughout the country (11,000 ordnance), including numerous remnants of war from the Second World War. The contribution of the Army Aviation in the forest fire-fighting campaign was also consolidated, with numerous interventions and dozens of flight hours in support of the civil authorities. 800 military personnel are involved in the 'safe stations' operation, which provides for the surveillance of 21 stations in the cities of Genoa, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Venice, Verona, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari and Palermo.

With regard to the resources for the three-year period 2025-2027, last year's Budget Law provided for the refinancing of the 'Strade Sicure' operation and the contribution of Armed Forces personnel in the 'Safe Stations' programme (EUR 231.5 million per year).

The resolution in the Defence Commission of the Chamber of Deputies (first signatory was Commission leader Eugenio Zoffili) 'commits the government to take initiatives to increase the number of military personnel in the Strade Sicure contingent in order to strengthen garrisons in cities, at borders, railway stations, and sensitive sites and locations On the other hand, Crosetto's position is different: on 4 December, in a audition in front of the Defence Commissions meeting in the context of the examination of the multi-year planning document for Defence for the three-year period 2025-2027, he emphasised one element: "It is necessary to increase the professional Armed Forces and in this sense I have said it several times that the Strade Sicure operation should slowly be given back to the Police Forces. "It is necessary that the military employed in Strade Sicure can calmly over time, agreeing it with the other ministries, return in perspective to do their job, which is now more indispensable than ever," he said on another occasion. 'Strade Sicure was born at a time of crisis, of emergency. Now the question is whether the emergency continues,' recalled the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Luciano Portolano, who was heard in recent months by the commissions on the subject of missions. In a recent interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, Portolano clarified: "Since the beginning of my mandate as Chief of Defence Staff, I have emphasised that new threats and changes in the global security context require defence reform and an increase in military personnel. All this would mean that the approximately 6,500 military personnel currently deployed for 'Strade Sicure' to guard the territory, in support of the Police Forces, would return to their primary role.

According to indications provided in the last few hours by theMinistry of the Interior, 3,500 new police officers will be hired in the coming days of January. This brings the total number of police officers hired since the start of the Meloni government's term of office to 42,500. Of the new officers, 470 will be assigned to Rome, 141 to Naples and the same number to Palermo, 123 to Milan and 118 to Bologna, 94 to Genoa and Turin, according to criteria that take into account the turnover in the individual locations, the assignments already made and further ones planned in the near future. In addition, 507 will be assigned to the Traffic Police, to ensure an increasingly capillary presence on the country's main roads and motorways, 153 to the Railway Police and 110 to the Polmetro, the special section of the State Police in charge of guarding the trains, platforms and stations of the Rome, Naples and Milan undergrounds.