Policy Context and Legal Framework

In enforcing the Community Police Programme, the Public Security Department of the Italian Ministry of the Interior has developed a project named “Commissariato di P.S. on line” (Online Police Station). Its mission is to enhance the security of citizens surfing the Net, therefore fighting computer crime. This project followed provisions and recommendations set forth by the following national directives and decrees: Programme of the Committee of Ministers for Information Society (approved on 13 February 2002); Decree of the Chief of Italian Police (4 June 2002) establishing the Interdirectorate Project Group for developing and implementing the “Integrated Security Project”, and the Directive of the Minister for Innovation and Technologies (18 December 2003) about the Guidelines on the digitalization of Public Administration.

Implementation and Management Approach

To advertise the birth of the Online Police Station several agreements have been made with the main Italian web portals (Adnkronos, Virgilio, Kataweb, Libero, Tiscali, Diritto and Diritti, MSN, Google and Yahoo), which created links in their websites to the Online Police Station. Some agreements have also been made with the main consumer associations and with the ANCI (National Association of the Italian Municipalities), which have fully supported the new project advertising it and being open to every kind of collaboration with the website. Recently, the Online Police Station in cooperation with eBay Italy, launched a campaign named "Good sense in all senses" aimed at advising citizens about how to buy safely in the Internet. Multi-channel issues: The Online Police Station comprises the following virtual rooms: ICT Security, Immigration, Licences and Permits, Recruitment, Passports, Minors, and Complaints. In each room, visitors can find detailed information on each topic, as well as downloadable forms to obtain licences, authorizations and documents

Impact

The results obtained since the launch of the Online Police Station can be summarized as follow: - Less work for the conventional Police Stations. - A new concept: the citizens in the middle of the Institutions. In fact, the Online Police Station reaches them in their office, home and so on. Therefore the citizens’ trust in the institutions has increased and now they can browse the Net safely. - More trust in the institutions, more crimes reported, ready knowledge of new crimes on the Net, more security of the citizens surfing the Net, full knowledge of social phenomena and new kind of crimes (bullysm etc.). Results obtained from February 15, 2006 to the end of June 2007: - Visitors: 760.000 - Online complaints: 6000 - Reports about content and events of illegal nature on the Net: 12.000 - Requests of information: 17.000 Innovation: The most innovative service of the project is the ICT Security area, where citizens can submit their complaints online or report computer crimes. Every online complaint submitted is sent to the Communications Police station chosen by the user through a dedicated network. After taking the step of submitting a complaint online, the citizen has to go to a brick-and-mortar police station to complete and sign-out the procedure. The ICT security area is the actual operations centre offering web users professional and specialized support, providing them with useful information and advice on how to surf the web safely. This is a specific area where users can delve into the subject, submit complaints and make reports online, and discuss with our experts in specific forums. With this innovative portal, the first and so far the only one of this type in the world, citizens can give their contribution to step up security levels. They can count on and inform the Communications Police experts about dangerous aspects and situations regarding the Internet. The increasingly closer contacts with citizens have also disclosed new forms of crime. This service has lightened the workload of conventional police stations, and more officers can be now be assigned to other tasks. So far results are excellent, especially if we consider the increasing number of both visitors to the Online Police Station website and the requests of the services it offers. We should also mention the good feedback from users who often express their thanks for the initiative and give their suggestions and advice on how to improve it.

Track record of sharing

Many questions have been raised regarding the implementation of a similar initiative in other countries. The Online Police Station project has been presented at the Interpol headquarters within the European Working Party on Information Technology and has received unanimous appreciation by European police forces. The project has been welcomed with such enthusiasm to make us think that the Online Police Station will represent very soon a common standard of the Police services to offer to all the citizens of the European Union. A model of the Online Police Station is being prepared in order to be proposed to police forces in the EU countries. Combining a technical project based on the Online Police Station experience and the working process necessary for its operation, the model will be adjustable to different network structures and legal systems.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - From our experience we have learnt that willpower is vital for such a project. Even the most sceptical colleagues will cooperate if they are properly motivated. It is important that they understand that this is the right way to follow and there is no going back. Lesson 2 - We have learnt that in the vast and borderless Internet world, the cooperation of citizens is fundamental to find out other forms of crime. The Online Police Station has received over 10.000 online reports which have enabled us to shed light not only on conventional computer crime, but also on a number of social phenomena, such as bullying, Satanism, incitement to anorexia or suicide. Lesson 3 - The last lesson learnt is that a constant effort in terms of both contents and technical platform is required to make a service accessible and easy to use for everybody. Another important element is the constant updating of contents so that every news item or article published is consistent and easy to link to what has already been published.