The Public Security Authority, Yesterday and Today

Abstract

In Italy, a current provision of the consolidated Text of public security laws (art. 1 R.D. n. 773/1931) clearly states what the Public Security Authority is. So too, law n. 121/1981 (containing the reform of the State Police) reiterates that definition. The Public Security Authority, at national level, is the Minister of the Internal Affairs; at provincial level it is the Prefect, understood as the administrative authority, as well as the Quaestor, technical authority; at local level, it is the Director of the Police Station or the Mayor (in municipalities where there is not a Police Station). This definition is not the Public Security Authority that doctrine and jurisprudence recognize as older of power to limit personal freedom (as contemplated in the article 13, paragraph 3, of the Constitution). We commonly believe that the administrative Authority capable of limiting freedom is the judicial police, i.e. the police at the disposal of the Judicial Authority, pursuant to article 109 of the Constitution. While the European trend (one might say, Global) goes in the direction of entrusting the tasks of the police to specialized Agencies, with the aim of depoliticizing the public security function, in Italy, the Minister of the Internal Affairs remains the national authority responsible for prevention and combating actions against criminal phenomena. However, the National Public Security Authority has lost some of its powers, following the advent of new Institutions (National Security Authority, Europol, Cybersecurity Agency, National Anti-Corruption Authority, etc.). This did not coincide with a progressive reduction of the tasks of the provincial Public Security Authorities (Prefect and Quaestor). Indeed, the boundaries of the powers exercised by those two Figures greatly expanded, to the point that the Prefects today can affect the life of private companies with measures, such as anti-mafia Interdictions, which are extremely harmful to economic interests. So too, the Quaestors can impose painful limitations on private individuals' freedom, through the ban on access to sporting events and the ban on access to urban areas, even in the absence of criminally relevant conducts.