The Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Italy: A Balance at Risk?

Résumé 0

This article starts with an illustration of the progressive conquest of the independence of the Italian public prosecutor’s office. This evolution has affected the relations between the public prosecution and the police – an organ trapped between loyalties to the government and to the judiciary. If, during the fascist regime, this system inclined heavily to the political authorities, the Republican Constitution and the new code of criminal procedure increased significantly the power of the public prosecutor vis-à-vis the police, thereby leading to a satisfactory balance of power. Nowadays, this institutional framework is menaced by reform projects that weaken the public prosecutor’s independence and that contest its active role during investigations, to the benefit of the police.