Safety Producers. The Italian Police Corps between Competition and Cooperation

The research is based on 6 focus groups conducted in as many cities in Southern Italy (Cagliari, Lecce, Naples, Palermo, Salerno & Reggio Calabria) involving 56 intermediate-level officers from 3 national police corps (State Police, Carabinieri, Financial Police) & 2 local corps (Municipal Police & Provincial Police). According to the interviewees, the official policy of cooperation among police corps is actually pursued at the "basic" level & "on the street," while it is not pursued at the higher levels of the respective organizations. The problems related to cooperation emerge especially with regard to evaluation (a difficult function in any case with reference to public safety) & in the recent creation of the community policing, which according to the members of Municipal Police should be the exclusive activity of the local police corps. The concept of "redundancy" (according to G. Morgan, negative if it refers to the components, positive regarding the functions,) & that of "slack" are applied from the perspective of "organizational learning.". Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.