The military is back on the streets of Bergamo, and starting Monday they will patrol the station area. These are not new personnel: the eleven soldiers who will be used for the “Safe Roads” operation had already arrived in Orio in January, joining the fifteen who already take care of the security of the airport, considered by the Ministry of the Interior to be the main sensitive area of the province.
Last October 2nd, a motion voted unanimously by the City Council had requested the extension of the service in the critical areas of the city, including the station, and now the decision of the ministry has arrived. In yesterday’s meeting of the Provincial Committee for Public Order and Safety in the Prefecture, the new “operational strategy of the military contingent” was defined. Thus moving eleven soldiers from the airport to the city, with “surveillance services at sensitive sites and targets to strengthen the control and security devices in place”. Which means that the soldiers will support the fixed operations that are carried out in Piazzale Marconi by the State Police, the Carabinieri and the local police (and railway police inside the station). The shifts are being prepared, but from Monday eight people per day should be active (considering rest shifts): two in the morning from 7am to 1pm, four in the afternoon from 1pm to 7pm and two in the evening from 7pm to 1am. The soldiers have the qualification of “public security agent” and not “judicial police”, and therefore they can above all identify and search people or vehicles, and carry out checkpoints.
«The increase in military personnel — comments the prefect Giuseppe Forlenza — will allow us to strengthen deterrence and preventionthus contributing to raising the levels of safety and urban livability, and will provide valid support to the police, strengthening the community’s perception of safety”.
Satisfaction from the mayor Elena Carnevali: “The support of the army will allow for greater control both in terms of station control and patrolling and deterrence in the most critical areas. The presence of armed forces units represents a further positive element in favor of the citizens’ perception of security. In recent days I have had confirmation of the effective collaboration of all the institutions that work together constantly”.
But the Municipality will continue its control action, assures the Security Councillor Giacomo Angeloni: «With particular attention to the strengthening of video surveillance devices, the municipal administration will not divert attention from its commitments to the control of the critical areas in the quadrant of via Paglia, Bonomelli and Quarenghi, in Malpensata and in other neighborhoods of the city, together with the interventions dedicated to serious marginalization and those of prevention and contrast of youth distress. The presence of the local police within the inter-force garrison represents a positive example of effective inter-institutional collaboration that has allowed us to achieve the results communicated by the prefect, playing both a deterrent and public safety role”.
In the first six months of the year, the picket in front of the station checked 2,403 people, of which 1,243 were foreigners: 28 were investigated for various crimes, 34 fined and 763 were found to be present in the databases of the police force. During the checks, 223 grams of hashish, 10.28 of cocaine and 0.48 of marijuana were seized. 28 shops and 63 vehicles were also checked and three missing persons were traced.
