For the fifth consecutive year, the 'Rummo' Scientific High School in Benevento opened its doors to officers from across the State Police, transforming a standard school day into an immersive encounter with law enforcement, legal education, and civic responsibility. The initiative, known as A Scuola di polizia - Education for Legality and Familiarization with the Police, drew students from the third, fourth, and fifth years of the institute and delivered a curriculum ranging from forensic science to digital safety. That this event has now reached its fifth edition speaks to something more than institutional goodwill - it reflects a deliberate, sustained effort to close the gap between young people and the state apparatus meant to protect them.
Institutions at the Lectern: Leadership Sets the Tone
The day opened with remarks from Giovanni Leuci, Chief of Police for Benevento, who framed the initiative not as a public relations exercise but as a meaningful bridge between institutions and the school environment. His presence at the podium was itself a signal: senior law enforcement leadership engaging directly with adolescents, rather than remaining an abstraction behind a uniform or a news headline. School principal Annamaria Morante, who has championed civic education and prevention-focused programming throughout her tenure, reinforced that message. Her consistent support for this kind of initiative reflects a philosophy that civic formation cannot be confined to a single subject on the timetable - it must be woven into the broader life of the school.
From Crime Scenes to Canine Units: Learning by Doing
What distinguished this edition from a conventional lecture series was its insistence on direct, physical experience. Officers from the Forensic Police recreated an authentic crime scene within the school premises, walking students through the investigative techniques and evidence-collection protocols used in real cases. The exercise offered something no textbook diagram can replicate: the logic of forensic reasoning made tangible, step by step, in a space the students know well. The canine unit added another dimension, demonstrating live detection work with dogs trained to identify drugs and explosives. For many students, this will have been their first close encounter with the operational realities of law enforcement - not as spectators, but as participants in a structured learning environment.
Officers from other departments led seminars and workshops on road safety, substance use among adolescents, and the broader importance of rule-following in daily life. These are not abstract topics for high school students; they are immediate and personal. Presenting them through direct dialogue with working officers, rather than through institutional pamphlets, lends them a credibility that formal instruction alone rarely achieves.
The Postal Police and the Digital Frontier
Among the day's sessions, the contribution of the Postal Police - Italy's specialist unit for cybercrime and digital investigations - drew particular interest. Officers addressed the risks that define adolescent life online: cyberbullying, financial scams targeting young users, the responsibilities attached to social media use, and the fundamentals of protecting one's own digital privacy. These themes carry genuine weight. Young people are the most active demographic online and, in many respects, among the most exposed. The patterns of harm - harassment conducted through private messaging platforms, manipulation through fake profiles, or the slow erosion of personal data through careless app permissions - are not hypothetical. They are documented features of contemporary digital life.
The inclusion of digital safety within a legality-focused event signals an important evolution in how Italian institutions understand civic education. Legal awareness can no longer be confined to traffic rules and drug prevention. The online environment presents its own architecture of rights, risks, and responsibilities, and students who graduate without basic digital literacy are genuinely disadvantaged - not only as potential victims, but as citizens expected to make informed choices in a world where personal data has become a resource as consequential as any physical asset.
Orientation as Much as Education
Beyond the civic and safety dimensions, the event served a practical orientation function for students approaching the end of their secondary education. Exposure to the Forensic Police, the canine unit, the Postal Police, and other specialised branches offers a concrete map of professional possibilities within law enforcement - roles that require scientific training, digital expertise, investigative discipline, and sustained public engagement. For students enrolled in a scientific high school, the relevance of forensic or cyber-investigation careers is not remote. Initiatives of this kind allow young people to see these paths not as distant abstractions but as accessible, skilled, and socially meaningful occupations.
The enduring value of A Scuola di polizia lies precisely in this dual purpose: it builds trust between institutions and the communities they serve while equipping students with knowledge they will carry beyond the school gate. Five editions in, the initiative at the 'Rummo' institute has earned its place as a model worth replicating.
