Members of the Carabinieri TPC are, first and foremost, police officers. In order to become a member of the TPC Corps, regardless of academic background you must first serve in the general law enforcement units and gain as much experience as possible in developing police investigation skills. One of the TPC captains interviewed by the author (Rush), whose credentials included a doctoral degree in archaeology, spent ten years focusing on mafia investigations before qualifying for TPC training. If a serving Carabinieri TPC officer is asked whether he is an archaeologist, a lawyer or a data analyst, he will respond patiently to such a strange question: ‘I am a police officer’.

Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Colasanti graciously explained to the authors some of the selection criteria and summarised the four phases of training for a serving officer in the Carabinieri TPC (Colasanti 2013, pers comm ). These begin with an introductory course in law enforcement roles and responsibilities before moving on to a practical phase during which the new officer can learn on the job and where their attributes as a TPC candidate are evaluated. The process continues with a third phase during which the selected TPC candidates receive specialised TPC academic training. A field assignment represents the fourth and final phase, during which the candidate is deployed alongside an experienced colleague in order to gain experience under close supervision while continuing to be rigorously evaluated. Ultimately, in order to be permanently assigned to the TPC Corps, the new candidate must complete all phases of training, achieving a level of ‘excellent’ or ‘above average’.

All Carabinieri officers, regardless of their ultimate specialty or assignment, begin service at Phase One with an educational introduction to law enforcement principles and general policing appropriate to their professional and academic background. As stated above, this training focuses on Carabinieri law enforcement roles and responsibilities. Introductory training is also customised to fit the officers’ future roles within the force, either as a Commanding Officer, Captain, Major, Colonel or General; a non-Commanding Officer, Marshal or Brigadier; or a serving law enforcement officer or policeman. The Commanding Officers will serve in positions of responsibility at the executive or director levels; the non-Commanding Officers will be responsible for command of smaller units.