He is the Commissioner (in Italian language: "Commissario") of the police precinct of the fictional town of Vigata. In this role he is balancing between the demands of his superiors and the realities of local crime and life in general; in fact, a determining factor of his success as a Sicilian policeman seems to be his ability to bridge between different cultures. There is the "northern" force, coming from Rome, Milan that attempts to standardize regulations and increase transparency. On the opposite side is the particularistic "southern" culture with complex webs of relationships that affect the way things are done. Montalbano excels at balancing between these two, while being true to his principles.