For the fifth year running, the 'Rummo' Scientific High School in Benevento opened its doors to officers from across the State Police, turning ordinary classrooms into spaces for civic education, professional orientation, and frank discussion about the risks young people face both on the street and online. The initiative, titled A Scuola di polizia - Education for Legality and Familiarization with the Police, brought together students from the third, fourth, and fifth years of the school in a full-day programme of workshops, demonstrations, and seminars led by active law enforcement professionals. Its premise is straightforward and increasingly necessary: that the relationship between young citizens and state institutions is best built through direct, honest contact rather than through abstraction.
Institutions at the Door, Not at a Distance
The day opened with remarks from Giovanni Leuci, Chief of Police of Benevento, who framed the initiative as a model of productive collaboration between law enforcement and the education sector. School principal Annamaria Morante, a consistent champion of civic and preventive education within the institute, was also present - her ongoing support for such programmes reflecting a broader conviction that schools carry responsibility not only for academic formation but for social and ethical preparation.
That conviction is not incidental. Across Italy and much of Europe, educators and policymakers have grappled with how to close the perceived distance between public institutions and younger generations, particularly in contexts where distrust of authority or simple unfamiliarity with how the state functions can leave adolescents without reliable frameworks for civic participation. Programmes like this one attempt to address that gap at its root, before attitudes calcify.
From Crime Scenes to Canine Units: Learning Through Experience
The programme's range was deliberately broad. Officers from multiple specialist branches of the State Police conducted the day's activities, each addressing a distinct dimension of police work and public safety. The Forensic Police reconstructed an actual crime scene inside the school - staging it with authentic investigative protocols - allowing students to observe evidence-collection techniques and the methodical reasoning that underlies forensic work. The exercise carried pedagogical weight beyond mere spectacle: it conveyed that investigations depend on precision, procedure, and patience rather than the compressed drama familiar from television.
The canine unit drew considerable engagement, with operational demonstrations involving dogs trained to detect narcotics and explosives. Alongside their obvious entertainment value, these demonstrations served a more pointed purpose: illustrating the practical tools available to law enforcement and the specific threats - drug trafficking, explosive devices - that such units exist to counter.
Separate sessions addressed drug use among adolescents and road safety, two areas where statistical risk for young people remains consistently significant and where early awareness has documented preventive value. Officers conducted these discussions as seminars rather than lectures, a format that invites questions and, more importantly, honest conversation about the pressures and temptations students actually encounter.
The Postal Police and the Hazards of Digital Life
Among the day's sessions, the contribution of the Postal Police - Italy's specialised unit for cybercrime and digital investigations - generated particular interest. Officers addressed the principal risks that young people encounter online, covering cyberbullying, online fraud and scams, the responsible use of social networks, and the protection of personal data and digital privacy.
These are not abstract concerns. Adolescents in Italy, as elsewhere in the developed world, spend substantial portions of their daily lives on digital platforms, often with limited understanding of how their data is collected, who holds it, and how it can be misused. Cyberbullying in particular has emerged as a serious and sometimes acute risk for teenagers, with documented links to anxiety, social withdrawal, and, in severe cases, more serious harm. Online scams increasingly target younger users, exploiting their familiarity with digital environments alongside their relative inexperience with financial and legal boundaries.
The Postal Police's presence at an event like this one matters because it signals a recognition that digital safety is now inseparable from civic safety. Teaching a student to recognise a phishing attempt, to understand that their social media activity carries legal weight, or to report harassment rather than absorb it in silence is as practically important as teaching them to wear a seatbelt. The formats used - interactive, conversational, conducted by professionals who investigate these crimes daily - are more likely to leave a durable impression than a pamphlet or a classroom module delivered without direct connection to real practice.
Orientation as Much as Education
The event served a secondary function that deserves recognition: vocational orientation. For students in the final years of a scientific high school, exposure to the operational breadth of the State Police - forensic science, canine units, digital investigation, road safety enforcement - opens a concrete window onto professional paths that many may not have considered in any precise way. The day was not recruitment; it was transparency. Young people were shown what these roles actually involve, the knowledge and commitment they require, and the institutional structures within which officers work.
That combination - civic education alongside professional exposure - gives the initiative a depth that single-purpose awareness campaigns often lack. A student who leaves understanding both the risks of online behaviour and the mechanisms by which the state investigates and prosecutes those who exploit others has gained something genuinely useful. The fifth edition of A Scuola di polizia in Benevento suggests that this model is durable, that schools and law enforcement can build something worthwhile when the relationship is built on preparation, respect, and a shared belief that young people are capable of engaging seriously with complex realities.
