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The Polizia di Stato (State Police) is one of the national police forces of Italy. It is responsible for providing general police duties in Italy, patrolling motorways ("autostrada"), railways , airports, customs (together to "Guardia di Finanza") as well as certain waterways, and assisting the local police forces. The Polizia di Stato is a civil police force, but it is militarly organized. This doesn't mean that is a military institution, but his structure is based like a military one. Polizia di Stato is the first Italian police force for what concern the keeping of public security (since it depends directly from "Dipartimento della Pubblica Sicurezza" that means "Department of Public Security") and the keeping of public order. It is a police force in contrast to the other main police forces of Italy, the Carabinieri, which is a military police (gendarmerie) force and the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian customs/borders/financial police that also falls in the military corps category.
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The headquarters of the Polizia di Stato are located in Rome where the offices of its chief, commonly referred to as "Capo della Polizia" (Chief of the Police), are located. The force is organized on a regional and provincial basis, thus every major Italian town or city has a main police station (called a Questura) run by the Polizia di Stato which is run by a "Questore" (the provincial commander). In smaller settlerments the offices of Polizia di Stato are run by a "Vice Questore Aggiunto" (Vice Adjunted Questore) or by a Commissario Capo (Chief Commissioner). There are also several sub-stations for various districts.
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