Caserta's municipal police force is at the center of a staffing dispute, after unions Uil Fp and Csa formally asked the city's administration for a meeting on recruitment and staffing.
According to Il Mattino Caserta, the unions addressed their request to the mayor, the personnel councillor, the council president and the general secretary, calling for a hiring plan and generational turnover in the force.
The unions report that Caserta's municipal police command has 32 officers and other supervisory personnel, with an average age close to 60. They argue that upcoming retirements could worsen current operational difficulties, making new recruitment urgent.
The workload described in the report is broad. It includes traffic enforcement, accident investigations, building and commercial inspections, environmental protection, compulsory health-treatment procedures, fines and appeals, management of the limited traffic zone, and administrative and judicial duties.
The unions also connect staffing needs to the scale of the city. Caserta has more than 50,000 residents, along with schools, a university, the Tribunal of North Naples, healthcare facilities, markets, religious processions, sporting events and evening commercial activity requiring policing.
The municipal administration has responded by saying that four new municipal police officers are expected within approximately two months, through resources included in the Integrated Plan of Activities and Organization.
The exact recruitment procedure, appointment dates and contract terms for those four positions were not specified in the report. The staffing figures and planned hires were presented through the unions' statements and the administration's response, without an independently available municipal staffing document for cross-checking.
