“The houses are there but they cost too much for a newly appointed officer who doesn’t earn 1500 euros. So the police officers all stay in the barracks, they don’t live in the city, they don’t integrate and when the time comes they leave. A continuous turnover that certainly isn’t good for the security of the territory”. The cry of alarm comes from the provincial secretary of Siulp Modena Roberto Butelli who is asking for a housing plan not only for the police force but for all those who fall into the so-called helping professions. “There were 75 apartments available to the police force, built in agreement with the then Ministry of Public Works and the Municipality of Modena. Based on the 92 law that has not been refinanced, the agreement expired and the apartments were put at market price. Those who could, a few, bought, others rented at market prices but many have left. To date there are the 5 apartments in via Forghieri, Ers and that’s it”. Butelli points out that on July 1st many State Police officers in the province obtained a transfer to return to their hometowns, or to a location deemed more suitable to their expectations and life choices. “Once the minimum period of stay has matured, currently set at one year for disadvantaged locations (PS Police Station and Mirandola Highway Police Detachment and Modena Nord Highway Police Subsection) and two years for all other Police offices in this province, officers, superintendents and inspectors can in fact legitimately obtain a transfer.
On this occasion, which concerns the role of the agents, there will be 32 operators who will leave Modena and the province, to return home or to another more pleasant location – he underlines -. Police officers who will obviously all be replaced especially by probationary agents just out of the Police schools, who will probably repeat the cycle that ends precisely on the first of July: very few years in this location and then off”. Butelli underlines how the vast majority of those who leave, have been in Modena for 2 or 3 years, many others for just a year or a little more as in the case of the disadvantaged locations of Mirandola and Modena Nord and, very often, they cite the housing problem as the reason for the request for transfer, which is fundamental in maturing the choice to go elsewhere. “Two or three years of service, mostly spent working and living in the barracks, without ever actually experiencing the city and without feeling an integral part of this community, but only thinking about the moment in which the minimum seniority of the location will be accrued to be able to leave. Compared to the past, when many agents chose to settle in Modena or the province to build a future for themselves, contributing to security in a more complete and participatory way, today there is a sort of impoverishment that cannot be addressed by simply replacing agents. The problem concerns all the so-called helping professions and the professions that can be defined as being of public utility”.
Butelli explains how Istat has certified 12 thousand vacant homes in Modena alone. “The requests for a safer territory are constantly increasing, because without that bastion of civilization there is no growth and no well-being; therefore a sort of “housing plan” that allows the police to remain in the territory and live there is essential”.
Valentina Reggiani
