Imagine walking through the elegant streets of Milan at night, past designer boutiques and historic cafés, suddenly feeling that uneasy prickle on the back of your neck. For many residents and visitors, that feeling has become all too common.
Just months before the city welcomes the world for the 2026 Winter Olympics, a senior police official delivered some truly startling numbers that have sent shockwaves through Italy’s financial and fashion capital.
The Statistic Nobody Wanted to Hear
During a parliamentary hearing focused on urban security, the city’s police commissioner revealed that eighty percent of what authorities classify as “predatory crimes” – think street robberies, bag-snatching, violent muggings – are being committed by foreign nationals.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Eight out of every ten times someone gets robbed on Milan’s streets, the perpetrator isn’t Italian. The commissioner shared that in the first nine months of 2025 alone, police made over 830 arrests for these types of offenses, with a worrying proportion involving minors.
“Residents live with a widespread sense of insecurity,” the commissioner told lawmakers, adding that while overall crime numbers have actually dropped this year, the perception of danger has skyrocketed.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
The timing couldn’t be worse. Milan is gearing up to co-host the Winter Olympics with Cortina d’Ampezzo starting in February 2026. Millions of tourists, athletes, journalists, and dignitaries will descend on the city.
All eyes will be on Milan. Every incident, every viral video of a tourist being robbed outside the Duomo, every headline about safety concerns – it will all reflect on Italy as a whole.
City officials know this. That’s why they’re pulling out all the stops, announcing that more than 2,000 additional officers will be deployed across Milan in the coming months, with special focus on tourist hotspots, train stations, and Olympic venues.
The Numbers Behind the Headlines
But the police commissioner’s 80% figure isn’t even the most dramatic statistic floating around.
Last year, the Interior Ministry released data showing that foreign nationals – who make up roughly 20% of Milan’s population – were responsible for approximately 65% of all crimes in the city. Not just street robberies, but everything from theft to assault.
Do the math. That level of overrepresentation is staggering by any measure.
- Foreign nationals: ~20% of population
- Responsible for ~65–80% of certain crime categories
- Particularly dominant in predatory street crimes
- Increasing involvement of minors in criminal activity
These aren’t abstract numbers. They’re real victims – tourists who came to see Leonardo’s Last Supper and left with broken teeth and empty wallets. They’re elderly Milanese residents afraid to leave their apartments after dark. They’re shop owners watching customers disappear because foot traffic has dropped due to safety fears.
The Rise of Youth Gangs and Social Media Glorification
One particularly troubling trend the commissioner highlighted involves what Italians call the “maranza” phenomenon – essentially youth gangs, often from immigrant backgrounds, who engage in anti-social and criminal behavior while filming it for social media clout.
These aren’t always the most serious crimes, but the constant harassment, intimidation, and low-level violence create an atmosphere of fear that drives people away from public spaces.
And here’s the modern twist: they’re proud of it. They post videos of themselves robbing people, fighting in metro stations, terrorizing restaurant terraces. The algorithm rewards them with views and followers, which encourages more of the same.
It’s a vicious cycle that’s proving incredibly difficult for traditional policing methods to break.
Milan’s Persistent Struggle with Safety Rankings
The city’s safety problems aren’t new. Year after year, Milan ranks dead last among major Italian cities in quality-of-life surveys when it comes to security.
Nearly 7,000 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants – the highest rate in Italy. Over a third of families report feeling unsafe in their own neighborhoods. The city ranks 104th out of 107 provinces for perceived security.
The mayor has tried to explain this away by suggesting Milan residents simply report more crimes than people in other cities, making the statistics look worse than reality.
But when tourists are getting robbed in broad daylight in front of the cathedral, when New Year’s Eve celebrations in the main square get canceled “for Olympic preparations” (with many suspecting the real reason is fear of mass sexual assaults like those seen in previous years), it’s hard to argue the problem is just better reporting.
The Integration Question Nobody Wants to Ask
This is where things get particularly sensitive.
Italy’s interior minister has been unusually direct, stating that “integration challenges must be addressed to reduce marginalization and its consequences.” That’s diplomatic speak for acknowledging that rapid demographic changes, particularly in certain neighborhoods, have created pockets where parallel societies operate with different norms and significantly higher crime rates.
In my experience covering European cities over the years, this pattern repeats itself with depressing regularity. When large numbers of young men from very different cultural backgrounds arrive in a short period, without adequate employment opportunities or cultural orientation, trouble often follows.
The fact that so many of these crimes involve minors makes it even more heartbreaking. These are kids who should be in school, playing football, building a future – not robbing tourists to buy the latest iPhone.
What the Olympic Spotlight Might Force
Perhaps – and this is where I think there’s a crisis can sometimes create opportunity – the unbearable pressure of hosting the Olympics might finally force meaningful action.
Because when CNN is broadcasting live from Milan and some tourist gets mugged on camera, it’s not just a local problem anymore. It’s an international incident.
We might finally see the kind of zero-tolerance policing that other European cities have implemented successfully. We might see serious conversations about integration requirements, about deportation of criminal foreigners, about actually enforcing the laws that already exist.
Or we might see a massive security theater operation that pushes the problem to the periphery for a few weeks, only for it to return worse than ever once the Olympic circus leaves town.
I’ve seen both outcomes in other cities. The next few months will tell us which path Milan chooses.
For now, the contrast couldn’t be more stark: one of the world’s most beautiful, sophisticated cities, preparing to show its best face to the world, while struggling with street crime levels that would shock many developing countries.
The fashion capital of Italy has always prided itself on style and elegance. Let’s hope it can rediscover the safety and security that should be every citizen’s birthright – before the Olympic flame is lit and the whole world is watching.
