esercito e città dall'unità agli anni trenta. tomo i - Sistema ...

492 JOHN A. DAVIS
while the Procuratore del Re was responsible for polizia giudiziaria. The
Carabinieri, although ultimately dependent on the Ministry of War, acted
on the instructions of the Questore. While on one hand, the Questore's
jurisdiction became at least comparable to that of the military authorities
(through the Carabinieri), their authority was greatly increased at the expense
of the municipal authorities (the sindaci and town councils), 20• In 1860
these arrangements were extended to the newly annexed territories, together
with the Piedmontese Regolamenti di Pubblica Sicurezza of 1859.
The history of the policing of urban Italy after Unification has still to
be written and much more research is required before generalizations can
be made with any confidence 21. But the information that was collected in
1887 when Crispi set about a major reorganization of civil policing indicates
that practice was very different from theory.
The total law-keeping forces in Italy at that time amounted to 47,049
men of whom 24,626 were RRCC, in contrast to only 4,505 Guardie di P.
S. There were also 9,434 municipal guards and 8,484 Guardie Forestali, paid
for by local administrations. The ·total annual cost for the State was 36.1
million lire, of which the RRCC alone accounted for 20.7 million
(57,3%) 22•
Although the RRCC had been transformed into a national police force
in the years after Unification, this had not been accomplished easily. The
longer term of service (5 years, as opposed to 3 in the infantry) and poor
pay meant that it was not easy to find recruits for the Arma. The onset of
the agrarian crisis in the early 1880s eased the situation, but although the
size ofthe force was increased by 2,000 men between 1881 and 1887 it stili
fell far short of its establishment of 24,626 men. Of these, only 3,518 had
mounts - a considerable handicap, since the main task of the RRCC was
rural policing. At the time of the Sicilian Fasci it was revealed that hardly
any rural stations were equipped with telegraphic communications 23 .
The correspondence that resulted from Crispi's inquiry also made it clear
that the distinction between urban and rural policing was not in practice
observed, mainly because the number of civil police (Guardie di PS) and
municipal police were quite inadeguate. But the attempts to introduce a
more effective divisi o n of labour between urban an d rural, civil an d military
policing w ere warmly supported by the Commando Generale dell'Arma dei
2o See esp: ACSR, Carte Crispi, b. 78/13.
21 For a generai survey of existing research see ]. A. DAVIS, (1988) cit.
22 ACSR, Carte Crispi, b. 78/2 .
23 Ibid., b. 78/4.
THE ARMY AND PUBLIC ORDER IN ITALIAN CITIES 493
RRCC, who replied as follows to Crispi's proposal in May 1887 that the RRCC
should no longer perform 'qualsiasi servizio di P.S. nell'interno delle Città
sedi di un Ufficio di Questura':
' ... riconosco oggidi che nei grandi centri l'azione dell'Arma, sia per l'ostacolo
che vi oppone la divisa, sia perché i molti e svariati servizi che ivi ad
esso incombono estranei alla p.s. le impediscono di prendere larga conoscenza
delle località e degli abitanti, sia infine per molte altre circostanze, non può
mai riuscire di molta efficacia ... 2 4 .
The Commander requested that in compensation the numbers of RRCC
in smaller towns and in rural stations should be increased and that the number
of mounted troopers should be increased as a matter of urgency.
But the development of clearer distinctions between the roles and functions
of the RRCC and the Guardie di PS proved far from easy. The recruitment
difficulties that beset the RRCC were even greater in the case of the
Guardie di PS. Following the regulations laid down in the law of March 20th
1865 (amended in the law of 21st December 1890), the PS Guards were to
be mainly ex-soldiers - either veterans or 2nd category conscripts who had
received basic milìtary training. Service in the PS counted as full military
service and the PS guards were exempt from all 'chiamate sotto le armi'.
Only bachelors and childless widowers were admitted, and all recruits were
required to pass a medicai examinatìon (conducted by an army surgeon),
to be aged no more than 40 and to be at least 1.6 meters tali. They were
also expected to be able to read and write, to have completed their military
service satsifactorily and without having been dismissed, and they were no t
to have any criminal conviction exceeding five days imprisonment 25.
The realities were very different, above all because ofthe great difficulty
in finding recruits willing to join the PS Guards. The Questore of Milan
drew the Interior Minister's attention to the fact that it was difficult if not
impossible to recruit PS agents: ' ... conoscendosi che le guardie si arruola;
no dove si presentano e che le Provincie dell'Alta Italia (Milano, Torino, Genova,
Bologna) non danno alcuno contingente' 26.
Similar observations on the difficulty of recruiting PS guards were made
by the Prefects of other cities. In 1884 the Prefect of Firenze noted in his
2 4 Ibid., b. 79/2 (May 1887).
25 Ibid., b. 47, Fascic. 694 (Doc 5).
26 lbid., b. 236/16 (pp. 23-4).