About us
We have done every job in security. That is why we know where to look.
Demetra Group grew out of the career of a man who has been a surveillance officer, an investigator, a security manager and an entrepreneur. Every stage taught him something, and today those lessons are the method we apply for our clients across Italy.
The founder
Alessandro Cascio
Criminologist · Founder and CEO of Demetra Group
Forty years in security, seen from every position: employee, investigator, executive, business owner. He started in 1986 as a surveillance officer at the aerospace plants in Caselle Torinese, a strategic site for the defence industry: fixed posts, perimeter patrols, access control. There he learnt the first rule of any site presence: whoever looks after a place must know it better than whoever wants to break into it.
From 1997 he worked in private investigations: first his apprenticeship, then running an agency and, in 2004, his private investigator’s licence from the Prefect. Corporate and retail investigations, written reports built to stand up in court and, above all, large-scale retail: hypermarkets, consumer electronics, sporting goods and high-end boutiques, where he became a risk manager and loss prevention consultant.
“Many clients asked me for things the law does not allow. And that weighed on me more and more.”
That conviction gave rise to Demetra Group, which he has led since 2001: from around forty staff in 2010 to more than three hundred and fifty in 2025, built on a cost model disclosed to the client and on an internal qualification system, the Percorso Demetra, which ties careers to training and merit. And on a principle that still sets the Group apart today: a company’s losses are not just theft. They have to be read, reconstructed and explained.
Alongside the business, representation and study. He is National President of A.P.I.S. and a founding member of Italdetectives Association, holds a degree in Legal Sciences and is an expert in criminology and investigative psychology. He has provided protection for television news crews working on investigative reports, receiving formal recognition from the Prefect and the Questore (provincial Chief of Police), and he is the author of essays on the investigator’s profession and on Italian private security.
Alessandro Cascio’s LinkedIn profile →
On LinkedIn he publishes the Rapporti (Reports), short analyses of private security, investigations and the profession: read the Rapporti on LinkedIn →
How we are organised
Behind every site we cover, a structure.
Twenty people in our central structure, across head office, the management hub, regional management and field coordination. Every function has a written remit and a declared reporting line: whoever buys the service always knows who is accountable.
The Group today
Specialist companies, under one direction.
The Consorzio Demetra Global Solutions shares offices, systems, advisers and its vehicle fleet across the Group’s companies, all of which operate in Italy. Each service is delivered by the company that holds the requirements to provide it. Unarmed concierge and access-control services, an auxiliary security service that does not require a licence from the Prefect, are entrusted to Servizi Ausiliari Integrati, certified to ISO 9001 and UNI 11926:2023. Investigations and retail loss investigations, which do require the Prefect’s licence, are carried out by Demetra Investigazioni e Sicurezza, a licensed private investigation agency (Italian licence under art. 134 TULPS) whose licence is valid throughout Italy.
What we believe in
What we have learnt, we apply every day.
The law before the contract
If a client asks us for something the law does not allow, we say no. Evidence gathered badly is of no use to anyone, and a service that breaks the rules exposes whoever buys it.
Understanding, not just watching
Being present on site is only the starting point. The value lies in reading what happens, reconstructing its causes and giving the client what they need to make a decision.
Training, not just hiring
A method is only as good as the people who apply it. That is why we select people who want to grow and we train them, with a career path tied to merit: that is how three hundred and fifty staff all work to the same method.
Open letter
To procurement, security and loss prevention managers
Before you choose us, know what I demand of us.
In forty years I have seen security from every side of the counter. I have learnt that the most expensive service is the one that promises everything and documents nothing. That is why I ask three things of everyone who works with Demetra, before any contract is signed.
- The site survey comes before the quote. No prices in the dark: first we study your store, then we propose a service.
- Every assignment must leave a trail. A report you can read, compare and, if need be, challenge.
- We say no when the law says no. Even if the client insists, even if the contract is a big one.
If any one of these commitments is not honoured in your store, I want to know. Write to me.
Alessandro Cascio
Founder of Demetra Group
Criminologist · National President of A.P.I.S. · Creator of the Nucleo Interventi Rapidi (Rapid Deployment Unit)
In the field
People before numbers.
Behind every site we cover is a team whose members know one another, train together and answer to a single line of direction. They are the service the client is buying.
The Controluce series · Three books
The profession, told by those who practise it.
Three books on private security and investigations in Italy, written from the inside. The series calls them “fascicoli” (case files) because each one opens a dossier on one part of the profession. Forthcoming, in Italian.
Prova effimera
The myth and the craft of the private investigator · Book, Fascicolo N. 1
How private investigation really works in Italy: the licence, the written mandate, privacy, evidence that stands up in court, anti-shoplifting investigations in large-scale retail, OSINT and artificial intelligence.
Oltre la divisa
An inquiry into Italian private security · Book, Fascicolo N. 2
Rules and remits, trades and services, race-to-the-bottom tenders and the dossier on firearms: an inquiry for practitioners and for those who buy security, because blurring roles puts legality and credibility at risk.
Assenza di alibi
Memoirs of a private investigator · Book, Fascicolo N. 3
A life in which the profession and the private story never allowed themselves to be separated: forty years of security and investigations, sixty years of Italy, told through the one investigation the author had always put off, the one into himself.
Where it all began · 2016
“Detective allo sbaraglio. Professione investigatore”: his first book, written ten years ago, from which “Prova effimera” grew. Available from laFeltrinelli and Amazon.
Let’s talk.
Tell us about your business or the problem you are facing: we reply within 24 working hours. +39 0172 750977.