In Italy, the polizia provinciale ('provincial police') is a general term used to identify provincial-level police forces. Each Italian province can by statute have its own police force (more or less like the American county police, but with much less power), but most of them have not instituted one for lack of fundings or because it is deemed "not necessary"; most of the provinces that have their own police are located in Northern Italy.
Polizia provinciale are small police organisations and their main duties are to enforce regional and national hunting and fishing laws but have also expanded into environmental protection. The forces' vehicles are usually white with a green or blue stripe along the side. As they are not considered national Police organizations, armaments (when allowed) is left to the initiative of the individual officers, and as such most of polizia provinciale members have to rely on firearms normally sold on the civilian market; seen the normal duties of such organizations, most of the firearms used by their members are hunting rifles or shotguns. However, when on-duty, the provincial police officers can be issued with some kind of equipment normally not available to civilians, such as generation-3 and above night-vision devices, used especially in anti-poaching operations.
Polizia provinciale must be distinguished from questura, the office of head of the state's police (polizia di stato) in province, called questore (questor).
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