In recent years, the study of Italy’s police forces since unification has grown into a well-developed field. Scholars still tend to focus on certain periods – like the Risorgimento, Fascism, and key moments of the Republic – as well as themes such as organised crime and political repression. But we now have a solid grasp of how major police laws evolved, along with detailed research on policing strategies in specific regions and cities, including Bologna, Naples, Sicily, Turin and Milan. Academic research has tended to favour the Polizia di Stato (State Police) over other forces (unsurprisingly, given the Carabinieri’s patchier archival records). Yet until now, no single work has comprehensively tracked the evolution of the Italian State Police and government policing policies from unification to the present day. Giovanna Tosatti’s new book fills this gap in the field, delivering the first complete history of Italy’s State Police from unification onward. It traces institutions, general policies, and the ministries and central police officers behind them, revealing how the central police apparatuses of the state surveilled, controlled, and at times violently restrained Italian society across its modern history.

The book’s five chapters examine the Italian police’s evolution from a chronological perspective. They start with its turbulent post-unification beginnings (Chapter 1, 1861–1879) and the modernisation efforts preceding Mussolini’s rise to power (Chapter 2, 1879–1922). Chapter 3 examines the Fascist era’s policing system, significantly shaped by police chief Arturo Bocchini (1922–1945); while Chapter 4 covers the war’s end and early postwar years (1944–1960). The final chapter (Chapter 5, 1961–2020) analyses key developments including counterterrorism operations, the battles against Cosa Nostra and the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, and the landmark 1980s reforms that established union rights and demilitarised the force. It concludes with critical reflections on the scope of these reforms, their impact on the relationship between Italian society and the state apparatus and the characteristics of today’s Polizia di Stato.

While we cannot here detail all reforms introduced by the various ministers, undersecretaries, officers and police personnel discussed in the book, we can at least attempt to identify key thematic cores that reveal what the author considers the defining characteristics of Italy’s State Police throughout its long history, while simultaneously guiding readers through the narrative.

The first key theme centres on the highly centralised nature of Italy’s police system – particularly the State Police structures – and the resulting tension between this Napoleonic-style centralisation and the practical demands of territorial policing. As the author demonstrates, many institutional reforms reflect a system in perpetual search of equilibrium, consistently carving out discretionary powers at the centre for the Interior Minister and police chiefs, often to the detriment of local administrative frameworks. This dynamic is epitomised by figures such as the Ispettori Generali di Pubblica Sicurezza (General Inspectors of Public Security), a senior administrative rank introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century. Initially destined to oversee provincial offices and direct law enforcement in designated ‘sensitive’ territories, these inspectors’ functions were later repurposed. During and after the First World War, they were put in charge of specialised temporary police institutions for the repression of political subversion or criminal phenomena and, under Fascism, they were integrated into regional structures alongside the OVRA’s political surveillance apparatus.

The second thread corresponds to a form of authoritarian continuity, or at least a persistent political orientation, within Italy’s State Police, that endured through the Kingdom during the Fascist regime, and into the republican years. This continuity manifested itself primarily in the institutional relationship between government and State Police, characterised by the latter’s direct dependence on the executive branch and the former’s refusal to grant the police – except during brief periods – forms of administrative autonomy similar to those accorded to the Carabinieri. This continuity further expressed itself through three key dimensions: the retention of preventive (political) control measures like domicilio coatto (internal exile) and repressive practices bypassing judicial oversight; the political deployment of police powers, either overt or covert (through informal and occasionally extra-legal control structures), typical not just of the Fascist period but also of the republican era; and crucially, the preservation of personnel and methods across regime changes. The post-Second World War failure to purge the police apparatus allowed figures like Guido Leto – one of the architects of the repressive Fascist regime – to retain authority well into the democratic period, ensuring the survival of operational frameworks from the dictatorship.

A third enduring element in the history of the Italian State Police is its militarised character, an intentional institutional choice that emerged in the aftermath of the national unification. From the outset, the police were conceived as a physical bulwark against segments of society considered a threat to the established order. This military ethos permeated every aspect of the force and persisted well into the republican era, at least up until the 1980s reforms. It was reflected in the barracks-based isolation of police agents from civilian life, the continued use of military-style training methods, and the deployment of heavy equipment that signalled a combat-ready posture in dealing with political and social dissent.

Collectively, these three enduring characteristics of the Italian State Police highlight the book’s broader significance. On one level, the work provides an essential, empirically grounded reference point as it offers a richly documented reconstruction that anchors the institutional history of the State Police in the concrete actions and policies of its key figures. Yet, on another level, the book’s contribution transcends the mere institutional history. While providing an original framework for understanding Italy’s state-building process, it uses the police apparatus as a prism to examine the evolving state-society relationship, exposing the institutional vulnerabilities (from the political instrumentalisation of law enforcement to the militarisation of an institution meant to serve civilian populations) that persistently challenged Italy’s democratic consolidation.