Story and Photos by Alessandro Gerelli
In Italy, the responsibility of patrolling the highways lies with the Polizia Stradale, or road police.
In years 50s and 60s, the police car was exclusively constituted by Italian production cars, mainly Alfa Romeo. Alfa was a public company:, and the cars always boasted good performance. Alfa Romeo 1900 first, then the Giulietta and the Giulia even in the sporty TI and Super version and also in a rare station wagon version, the 2000/2600 sprint and the Alfetta, all painted in a military greenish gray, were all used by the police. The original movie version of the "Italian Job" featured a group of Alfas sedans, hopelessly chasing Mini Coopers through the streets of Turin. One must bear in mind that the film was British.
After the sale of the Alfa Romeo to the Fiat Group, the Polizia Stradale cars have not been only Italian (Fiat and Alfa Romeo), but there are a variety of BMWs and Subarus, mainly in station wagon version.
Since the 80s, the color has changed and the cars are light blue with white stripes.
In the 1960s, after the completion of much of the Autostrada, the requirement to be able to run after very fast cars on the very fast Italian highways was a must. Back then, there were no speed limits, the traffic was rather light and the highways were in perfect condition.
Therefore, the Italian Police decided to buy a very elegant Ferrari 250GTE and to train few policemen to drive it. The training was done directly by the Ferrari test drivers.
Armando Spatafora's
office during the era of La Dolce Vita.
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The color of the car was very dark, as not to attract the attention of the criminals.
The Ferrari was based in Rome but it could easily reach the north of the country.
The Ferrari wasn’t just for show, either. It participated in many high speed chases with a great deal of success, most of the time being piloted by a policeman by the name of maresciallo Armando Spatafora. Both the driver and car eventually became famous.
After its honored service, the car was restored and today is present in many events in Italy, attracting a loft of attention and curiosity.
But the Ferrari was not to be the only super cop car. Last year, the Italian Police decided that a super car was needed for patrolling in the southern part of Italy. This time Lamborghini made a gift of a wonderful Gallardo, that has been modified to include all the most updated and technological tools to support the activity of the police, such as a computer connection, recording systems, navigational system, etc.
Gallardo has all the most recent high tech gear to aid in capturing criminals.
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Of course it is now more and more difficult to reach high speed even on the highways, but the police hope that the mere presence of such a car might be a psychological deterrent for robbers and criminals.
