IL RUOLO DELLA POLIZIA LOCALE ITALIANA RISPETTO AL SISTEMA DI FORZE DI POLIZIA: CENNI ALLE PROSPETTIVE DI RIFORMA

L’oggetto di analisi di questa tesi è la Polizia municipale. Nel primo capitolo vengono descritte le origini della Polizia locale che risalgono addirittura all’epoca degli antichi Romani anche se la formazione dei primi corpi di polizia municipale con caratteristiche simili a quelli odierni risale al periodo post-unitario. In seguito viene descritto il sistema di Polizia italiano costituito da cinque Forze di Polizia nazionali: Polizia di Stato, Arma dei Carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza, Polizia Penitenziaria e Corpo Forestale dello Stato. Sono poi analizzate le ipotesi di razionalizzazione delle Forze di Polizia nazionali visto che l’Italia è definita il paese delle 1.000 Polizie e delle 1.000 uniformi, con l’obiettivo di comprendere più a fondo l’attività della Polizia locale ed il contesto nel quale opera. Il capitolo secondo descrive gli aspetti organizzativi della Polizia locale che è incardinata nell’ente locale Comune, vengono descritte le tendenze evolutive, negli ultimi anni i Comuni di piccole e medie dimensioni stanno organizzando una gestione associata di funzioni e servizi compresa la Polizia municipale. In seguito viene approfondito il quadro legislativo e descritte dettagliatamente le funzioni degli appartenenti alla Polizia locale. Il terzo capitolo analizza le prospettive di riforma della legge quadro n. 65 del 1986 sull’ordinamento della Polizia municipale con alcuni cenni all’esperienza francese, infatti qualsiasi progetto di riforma parte sempre dall’analisi dell’esperienza di altri paesi. Come appartenente alla categoria ho cercato di essere imparziale e di far emergere i molti aspetti positivi di una figura professionale non abbastanza valorizzata rispetto al complesso lavoro che svolgono quotidianamente i tanti vigili urbani. Circa 80.000 poliziotti, “urbani” anche nei modi che continuano nonostante le accuse di atavica propensione a far cassa per l’amministrazione di appartenenza, a svolgere professionalmente, con capacità e dedizione, quei compiti di intervento, manutenzione e ripristino anche negli ambienti più degradati e di maggior disagio sociale

Visual response of ventrolateral prefrontal neurons and their behavior-related modulation

The ventral part of lateral prefrontal cortex (VLPF) of the monkey receives strong visual input, mainly from inferotemporal cortex. It has been shown that VLPF neurons can show visual responses during paradigms requiring to associate arbitrary visual cues to behavioral reactions. Further studies showed that there are also VLPF neurons responding to the presentation of specific visual stimuli, such as objects and faces. However, it is largely unknown whether VLPF neurons respond and differentiate between stimuli belonging to different categories, also in absence of a specific requirement to actively categorize or to exploit these stimuli for choosing a given behavior. The first aim of the present study is to evaluate and map the responses of neurons of a large sector of VLPF to a wide set of visual stimuli when monkeys simply observe them. Recent studies showed that visual responses to objects are also present in VLPF neurons coding action execution, when they are the target of the action. Thus, the second aim of the present study is to compare the visual responses of VLPF neurons when the same objects are simply observed or when they become the target of a grasping action. Our results indicate that: (1) part of VLPF visually responsive neurons respond specifically to one stimulus or to a small set of stimuli, but there is no indication of a “passive” categorical coding; (2) VLPF neuronal visual responses to objects are often modulated by the task conditions in which the object is observed, with the strongest response when the object is target of an action. These data indicate that VLPF performs an early passive description of several types of visual stimuli, that can then be used for organizing and planning behavior. This could explain the modulation of visual response both in associative learning and in natural behavior

Selectivity for grip type and action goal in macaque inferior parietal and ventral premotor grasping neurons.

Grasping objects requires the selection of specific grip postures in relation to objects' physical properties. Furthermore, grasping acts can be embedded into actions aimed at different goals, depending on the context in which the action is performed. Here we assessed whether information on grip and action type integrate at the single neuron level within the parieto-frontal motor system. For this purpose, we trained three monkeys to perform simple grasp-to-eat and grasp-to-place actions, depending on contextual cues, in which different grip types were required, in relation to target features. We recorded 173 grasping neurons: 86 from the inferior parietal area PFG and 87 from the ventral premotor area F5. Results showed that most neurons in both areas are selective for the grip type, but the discharge of many of them, particularly in PFG, appears to differ in relation to action context. Kinematics data and control experiments indicated that neuronal selectivity appears to more likely depend on the action goal triggered by the context rather than on specific contextual elements. The temporal dynamics of grip and goal selectivity showed that grasping neurons reflect first "how" the object has to be grasped (grip), to guide and monitor the hand shaping phase, then "why" the action is performed (goal), very likely to facilitate subsequent motor acts following grasping. These findings suggest that, in the parieto-frontal system, grip types and action goals are processed by both parallel and converging pathways, and area PFG appears to be particularly relevant for integrating this information for action organization

Action observation activates neurons of the monkey ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Prefrontal cortex is crucial for exploiting contextual information for the planning and guidance of behavioral responses. Among contextual cues, those provided by others' behavior are particularly important, in primates, for selecting appropriate reactions and suppressing the inappropriate ones. These latter functions deeply rely on the ability to understand others' actions. However, it is largely unknown whether prefrontal neurons are activated by action observation. To address this issue, we recorded the activity of ventrolateral prefrontal (VLPF) neurons of macaque monkeys during the observation of videos depicting biological movements performed by a monkey or a human agent, and object motion. Our results show that a population of VLPF neurons respond to the observation of biological movements, in particular those representing goal directed actions. Many of these neurons also show a preference for the agent performing the action. The neural response is present also when part of the observed movement is obscured, suggesting that these VLPF neurons code a high order representation of the observed action rather than a simple visual description of it

Selectivity for grip type and action goal in macaque inferior parietal and ventral premotor grasping neurons

Grasping objects requires the selection of specific grip postures in relation to the objects' physical properties. Furthermore, grasping acts can be embedded in actions aimed at different goals, depending on the context in which the action is performed. Here we assessed whether information on grip and action type integrate at the single-neuron level within the parieto-frontal motor system. For this purpose, we trained three monkeys to perform simple grasp-to-eat and grasp-to-place actions, depending on contextual cues, in which different grip types were required in relation to target features. We recorded 173 grasping neurons: 86 from the inferior parietal area PFG and 87 from the ventral premotor area F5. Results showed that most neurons in both areas are selective for grip type, but the discharge of many of them, particularly in PFG, appears to differ in relation to action context. Kinematics data and control experiments indicated that neuronal selectivity appears more likely to depend on the action goal triggered by the context than on specific contextual elements. The temporal dynamics of grip and goal selectivity showed that grasping neurons reflect first "how" the object has to be grasped (grip), to guide and monitor the hand shaping phase, and then "why" the action is performed (goal), very likely to facilitate subsequent motor acts following grasping. These findings suggest that, in the parieto-frontal system, grip types and action goals are processed by both parallel and converging pathways, and area PFG appears to be particularly relevant for integrating this information for action organization. © 2012 the American Physiological Society