Yesterday was a day of celebrations for the 151 years of the local police force. For the occasion, the Loggia opened the doors of the Vanvitellian hall: a choice, underlined Commander Marco Baffa, intended to remind the city “that we are part of it, that we are at its service on a daily basis even when our work does not appear or it doesn’t pay the right amount in terms of image. Because our peculiarity is precisely being “local police”, that is, at the service of the place where we work, rooted in its social fabric to share moments of life to improve its liveability”.
The celebrations
The day of celebrations began at 8am with the flag raising at the Local Police Headquarters; from 11am, introduced by the National Anthem played by the instrumental group of the Isidoro Capitanio Citizen Band of Brescia and by the reading of the prayer of the “Traffic Policeman”, the ceremony. During the morning, honors were awarded to the personnel in service and those who will be retired during 2023. And then the certificates were given to the students of the Brescia schools who participated in the 15th edition of the project “With the Local Police, for safety, on the streets of our city.”
During his speech, Commander Baffa took stock of the results for 2023: from the numbers of initiatives to combat crimes related to drug dealing – 49 arrests for drug dealing out of a total of 80, with the seizure, in total, of almost 29 kilograms of hashish and marijuana, 1.6 kilograms of heroin, 2.8 of cocaine – to violations of the urban police regulation – 899 in total, a clear increase compared to the previous three years. The spotlight was also on the interventions that took place in Piazza Vittoria and in the station: “In the area of Piazza della Vittoria” explained the commander “221 checks were carried out by the Operations Centre, using video surveillance cameras”. The local police carried out 90 interventions in 2023, aimed at resolving fights, arguments, arguments, bivouacs and episodes of begging. “There were 37 fixed surveillance services in the square while 20 checks were carried out in public establishments”.
Prevention and environmental protection, the challenges of the future
Last but not least, the theme of environmental protection and the decorum of the city: “There will be 1,410 fines imposed in 2023 for environmental offenses by the Local Police of Brescia’s Territorial Control and Combating Degradation Team” indicated Baffa. Which indicates, for the future, the intention to increase activities to combat waste abandonment, both with the aid of new photo-traps “in wooded or tree-lined areas”, and thanks to a special team specialized in combating to the phenomenon of degradation and abandonment of waste, activated in close collaboration with Aprica. The added value of the new team is the possibility of carrying out analysis of the data flow of the IT and technical equipment available, thanks also to the access to the database of the National Register of Environmental Managers and to further databases for cross-verification of the data. These procedures allow real-time control of which vehicles and companies operate legitimately in the field of waste transport and handling in the city area.
Since 2023, the working group has also accessed an email address to which the Command secretariat forwards reports and communications on waste abandonment. In 2023, over 500 arrived: “these are requests that come from citizens and some institutions such as the Neighborhood Councils. Of these complaints, 343 were examined with documented inspections.” “The real overall reading compared to the data listed” concluded the commander “is undoubtedly the most intelligent and profitable way of doing prevention: using young people as a vehicle for transmitting the cult of legality so that, as citizens of tomorrow, they already have a correct approach to institutions”.
Mayor Laura Castelletti also underlined the many activities carried out by the Corps and the road safety education courses aimed at pupils in primary schools and lower and upper secondary schools, as well as anti-bullying and cyber-bullying prevention activities. “This is a very important service, extremely useful for our community. Teaching children and young people, from an early age, the value and importance of rules means allowing them to grow and become aware and responsible citizens. There are so many challenges ahead of us. All of us, more and more, require the ability to adapt, flexibility and dynamism” underlined the first citizen. “For this reason, the Municipal Administration strongly wanted to increase hiring, aware of the fact that investing in staff, human capital and their training is essential to achieve important objectives.”.
Tags: Thursday April Palazzo Loggia hosted celebrations #151st anniversary foundation local police force
