Errico Malatesta's "For The Higher Police Authorities" provides a very good summary of the state of the police:

That the Police are indiscreet, vexatious, evil and, when it happens, even brutal, is something that we understand: it is the profession that wants it. They have always been and will always be like that, in any regime: and therefore we must fight for their radical abolition and not for their reform. But do they really need to be also, and above all, stupid? It would seem so.

The Tuscans usually say: he who is born a fool is never cured [chi nasce bischero non guarisce più].

Once Depretis, attacked by Deputy Tajani, because there were a number of criminals in the police force, replied: "But who do you want me to put in, if the honest men don't want to do that job?" If someone reproached Giolitti, who is a rascal but not an idiot, the ineptitude of his agents, he might reply: "But what can I do if intelligent men don’t want to be policemen?"