AIMS OF THE PROJECT
Legislation that regulates the transport and handling of weapons and/or their essential components, including weapons for sporting purposes, is extremely complex and requires specific permits from public safety organisations such as police departments. The project therefore focused on permits to transport weapons between companies and public safety organisations. The aim was to create an open, scalable web portal with the following functionality:
- Ability to connect individual companies and police headquarters on secure, encrypted channels, providing the possibility of sending data and documents and receiving licence applications electronically, monitoring the status of each permit in real time.
BENEFITS ACHIEVED
Stain developed the SIGMA PORTAL, a web portal with the latest security and information technologies, to computerise weapon transport certificates, and the following in particular:
- Electronic compilation of transport permit applications for weapons following checks on legal compliance, with errors and potential rejections by the police department flagged.
- Applications signed electronically.
- Electronic transfer of transport permit applications from the producer to the police.
- Electronic issue and transfer of authorisation from the police to the producer.
- Real-time monitoring of the status of permit applications submitted.
- Logging of all applications/permits issued for immediate statistical analysis by the police and the individual producer, with multiple filters.
On 4 October at Palazzo Loggia, the integrated weapon management portal SIGMA was presented to regional governor Mr Valerio Valenti, police representative Mr Carmine Esposito, and various representatives from government departments, Brescia University, and production companies. The portal will enable the police authorities to send and check all documents required for handling weapons, and issue permits for the transport and export of weapons to producers belonging to Consorzio Armaioli Italiani.
The project was backed by the SIGMA network, and Consorzio Armaioli Italiani officiated by Pierangelo Pedersoli. In addition to the participation of police representatives, the members of 14 companies in the SIGMA network took part in the project, including the Pietro Beretta Weapons Factory, a technical committee coordinated by Mr Alberto Gottardi, Brescia University, and STAIN, with the software platform implemented as a result of considerable teamwork from all participants.
This first step taken by a government department towards digitalisation prompted the regional governor and director of the General Public Safety Department, Marco Valentini, to seriously consider other projects for the future, and demonstrates how accelerating information and documents with innovative projects is now essential.
