So-called civil assistants who may be voluntarily deployed in Italian cities to improve adherence to social distancing rules after the lockdown ends must undergo special training, because otherwise such a measure could create social unrest and bring more problems than solutions, Italian Senate member Luigi Vitali has told Sputnik
GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2020) So-called civil assistants who may be voluntarily deployed in Italian cities to improve adherence to social distancing rules after the lockdown ends must undergo special training, because otherwise such a measure could create social unrest and bring more problems than solutions, Italian Senate member Luigi Vitali has told Sputnik.
The proposal to recruit some 60,000 volunteers, or "civil assistants," to enforce social distancing was voiced by Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia on Monday and immediately sparked controversy within the government and among various political forces.
"It would be absolutely necessary that these volunteers be subjected to a minimum preparatory training and their suitability for the intended function be verified," Vitali, who is vice-president of the permanent commission of constitutional and domestic affairs of the Senate, said.
According to the senator, the civil assistants must be between 35 and 45 years old, and they must have previous experiences in military service or surveillance.
"If they do not have any authority and special preparation, it would create more problematic situations than those that need to be resolved now. After more than two months of lockdown and a great desire to return to normality, an inappropriate approach can cause unrest," he said.
Antonio Decaro, mayor of the southern city of Bari, who coauthored the proposal with Boccia, said that the volunteers would help observe access to parks or markets by counting the number of people entering or leaving, and monitor the rules of access to beaches once they reopen.
"It is impossible to control hundreds of kilometers of beaches or, if the help of these volunteers is to be used in cities, thousands of meeting places. Law enforcement officers would be diverted from their duties and the military personnel would be insufficient. Not to mention the shortage of municipal police forces," Vitali said.
Nevertheless, the help of the civil assistants on beaches is unlikely to be efficient, Vitali believes.
"Some regions have introduced booking systems for public beaches that are more easily controlled by local police and law enforcement agencies," he said, proposing an alternative for the volunteers on the beaches.
Italy has so far registered over 231,000 COVID-19 cases since the start of the outbreak, with over 147,000 recoveries and 33,072 deaths related to the disease.
