23Jan01
112 is the number for Carabinieri, while 113 is for Police. This is a brief summary of emergency numbers in Italy: 112 Carabinieri - 113 Police - 115 Fire - 116 A.C.I. (Automobile Club d'Italia) - 117 Finance Guard - 118 Medical Emergency - 1515 Forestry Guard - 1530 Coast Guard.
About Carabinieri: they patrol cities and the most important towns in a province, together with Police. The rural areas are exclusively patrolled by Carabinieri, since their dissemination is very dense. Carabinieri usually have 1 office in every Municipality (Comune). Since there are 8106 Municipalities in the whole country, and since there are often more than 1 office in each Municipality, there are more than 10000 Carabinieri Offices, even in very small villages. You can see a Carabinieri Office in municipalities with a population of only 500! These offices are very small are and usually presidiated with 4 or 5 men.
Highways (Autostrade) are exclusively patrolled by Highway Police. State Motorways (Strade Statali) are maintained by a government agency, thus they're under the "surveillance" of Police (Ministry of the Interior). Provincial and Municipal Roads are patrolled by Carabinieri and Urban Police (Vigili Urbani) of each Municipality.
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Part 2
1. Almost every commune, even the small ones, has a "Urban Police" ("Vigili Urbani" or "Polizia Municipale"); some small adjacent communes can stay [work / join] together and have a common "Police", but the normal business is that every commune has its own "Police". I have to say that this kind of "police" has not law enforcement purposes, but it cares about local traffic, rural roads maintenance, and the respect of local commune ordenances (local acts) e.g. shops' opening hours.
2. Every location is located within a commune. There are no unincorporated areas, but there is an act discussed in the parliament, trying to establish "Metropolitan areas" in big cities. They would have the same importance of the provinces.
3. You can dial 112 or 113 as you like, in every part of the country, but, if you call 113 in a rural area, the Police dispatcher will pass your call to the nearest Carabinieri Command. No problem in calling 112: Carabinieri are disseminated in either big cities or in rural areas. In any case, it's NOT "Urban Police" business.
4. You can use any emergency number from you cellphone, and reach the dispatch center linked to the cellular network base radio station you are linked with. This could be a problem in border zones between two different provinces or regions. For example if I'm located in Lombardia region but next to Piemonte borders, and call 112, I can get a Piemonte dispatcher rather than a Lombardia one. In any case the dispatcher will relay the call to the proper center.
5. Town Fire Detachments depends [are dispatched by] from Province Dispatch Centers. I'll try to explain better:
- "Ispettorato Regionale" (Regional Inspectorate), located in every Region capital, is the bigger unit. They play their roles in big events such as earthquakes, floods, etc. Each Provincial Center depends from it.
- "Comando Provinciale" (Provincial Center), located in every province capital, is THE DISPATCH CENTER. If you dial 115 you'll have the answer from the Comando Provinciale. Town Fire Detachments depends from it.
- "Distaccamento" (Town Detachments) are located in major towns within a province, but DON'T have their own 115 dispatch center. They only have calls passed from the Provincial Dispatch Center. Fire Posts in airports, harbours, etc, are also "Detachments" and not Dispatch centers. Larger cities and communes don't have a local fire center. They have the Provincial Center which take care of the whole provincial territory, even the metropolitan city area. In big cities, obviously, dispatchers are separated (city calls and province calls), but the dispatch center is the same.
Finally, there are: 18 Regional Inspectorates; 102 Provincial Dispatch Centers about 500 Town Detachments (I'm not sure about the number, but there's an average of 5 Detachments for every province).
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