Rome’s Police is ready to lend an ear

This month saw the start of a new approach to patrol work

When Ugo Angeloni became the Chief Commander of the Local Police service in Rome at the start of this year, he made a promise to implement a new approach to provide the service of security to the communities of the Italian capital – something that he called ‘proximity policing’.

Proximity policing is the Italian version of what is commonly known as ‘community policing’ in the cities of North America. Its intent is to bring police officers closer to the residents that they are meant to help and to listen to their concerns.

For that reason, the Italian capital’s Local Police Department placed its first proximity patrols in the city’s districts last week as a realization of Commander Angeloni’s much expected initiative.

Reaching out to civic organizations and individuals

The proximity patrols will carry out a ‘mobile listening desk’ of sorts, meaning that the officers rather than controlling or investigating will take the time to hear and take note of the citizens’ concerns. This is set to happen according to a weekly and rotating schedule in the various districts of each Municipal District of Rome. 

“This new service allows us to better monitor our neighbourhoods, to offer people a greater perception of safety. I think it is important that citizens can see the agents of our Local Police as real points of reference to rely on and turn to, establishing a relationship of dialogue with them. In this way, we make Rome an ever-safer city, bringing the institutions back to the grassroots level”, stated the Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi.

This phase represents the fulcrum of the "Proximity Sector" project, which itself started a few weeks ago after a wide-effort activity from each district patrol to contact the various representatives of active citizenry - from individuals to neighbourhood committees. 

This operating model, prepared by the General Command, aims to make the interface between agents and citizens more efficient, thus improving urban liveability and the management of interventions in the various fields of action, such as road safety, viability, and communal peace - all with the ultimate aim of protecting citizens.