As the Malta Police Association President put it, the police force has shifted from being ruled by a 13-year-old monarchy to three different police commissioners in a couple of years.
In an interview with The Malta Independent, MPA President Malcolm Bondin speaks to Gabriel Schembri about the MPA proposals whose subjects vary from violence on police officers to the training of new recruits.
MPA insist they are very different from their counterpart trade union, the Police Officers Union, which is headed by Sandro Camilleri who has been refusing to mince his words on the police corps and MPA itself. They believe that it’s better to work in silence, as shouting on Facebook or television is simply not their style.
The Malta Police Association was established in 1955, making it one of the oldest associations on the island. For many years, it was considered something in-house and, unfortunately, the lack of participation had characterised its infancy. However, things changed in 2008, when the association acquired a group of fresh leaders. Despite keeping the same name which includes ‘association’, MPA is now officially a trade union.
‘MPA and MPOU have a completely different approach’
MPA President Malcolm Bondin explained that the Malta Police Officer’s Union is a completely different entity. The MPOU, led by Inspector Sandro Camilleri was established after the last general election when a new law provided the possibility for the creation of different police unions.
Don’t you think that by having two unions, we are creating conflict within the police corps members?
No, not necessarily. Actually, competition is healthy as members now have a choice.
How are the members distributed between the two unions?
MPA now counts more than 1,400. Of course I cannot tell you how many are registered with the other union. But I am pretty sure we still hold the majority.
How’s the relationship with Sandro Camilleri?
Unfortunately, I cannot really say that there is any form of relationship with Inspector Camilleri. We both work in a very different manner. At MPA, we choose to sit down and speak to tackle the issues. Shouting and uploading videos on Facebook is not our style. We work in silence, but hit the nail on its head. MPA has no intention of attacking the other union. That’s just not us.
But you were attacked by the MPOU…
Yes. But I will not fall for that approach. From our end, we want to have more cooperation. The union just goes on television and attacks the counterpart without us being present. This is unethical. There is one very basic difference between us two. MPA is a team of ten people working in the interest of the members while MPOU is practically a one man show.
Did you ever hold any meetings with Camilleri’s union?
We have invited Sandro Camilleri to join us for an informal meeting but he never came.
Violence on police officers
MPA has just sent a letter to the Prime Minister calling for harsher penalties against those that attack or injure police officers. As MPA explained, although harsher measures were introduced in 2014, it seems that they do not deter people from assaulting the police.
On the other hand, how can we eliminate all doubt whether a police officer was actually attacked or not? Because sometimes under police custody people claim they were victims of beatings by police officers.
We have said it before, that police officers need to be equipped with a camera. I think it is high time that we also put cameras in the police stations. Of course, this has to be coupled with education. We have to inform the offender that they are being filmed but also educate the police members on how to use the camera effectively.
Overtime arrears
The overtime arrears issue dates back to the 1990s when police officers were promised an overtime rate for extra hours worked. Instead, they continued to receive a flat rate of €23. The situation was only rectified in 2009 – 16 years later – following a judicial protest filed by MPA. However, Inspector Sandro Camilleri harshly criticized the MPA for standing idle in front of a degrading situation in the police force.
Showing me a number of boxes packed with documents, Inspector Bondin explains that they are doing their best to work out the actual sum due to over 500 police officers.
“The process is long but not impossible. We filed a judicial protest but could not carry on to file a case in court as experts had told us it would cost a fortune. MPA does not have that amount of money, neither do the police officials.”
Terrorism threats
MPA believes that when it comes to terrorism, you can be trained as much as possible but you can never be 100% prepared.
“There is a lot of work going on in the background. We are proactive, but should we come to the need to act, I think we will face some major problems. There is a lot of room to invest more.”
Training and recruitment
On this regard, MPA had proposed a total overhaul. A first proposal is to detach the police academy from the police itself as the association believes that the training academy has to be completely autonomous.
“You have to understand one thing. The training period in the academy is not even standard. There are those who became police officers after six months, two months and in extreme cases, like when there was the referendum and the demand for police was high, police training at the academy lasted only three weeks. The system is still very ambiguous.”
Is there demand for new recruits?
The demand is huge. We need to increase the members of the police corps. Sections have increased and became more specialised, so, yes there is room for new recruits.
Change in leadership - From monarchy to turmoil
Inspector Bondin described the last years as a period of turmoil.
“We had a monarchy of 13 years under Commissioner Rizzo, and now we have had three in fewer than three years. That’s a lot of changes. The problem is that the Commissioner does not have a policy to abide with. The policies are being changed every time we have a new Commissioner.”
MPA proposes the setting up of a Prosecution Unit
MPA has proposed the setting up of a prosecution unit so that police inspectors do not spend most of their time arraigning people to court.
“Family court and traffic are the first to introduce this system as a pilot project. Thanks to this unit, police inspectors will not lead the prosecution, but they will be there only to carry out the investigation and to testify.”
Part-time work for Police Officers
Following a story by The Malta Independent which revealed how members of the disciplinary forces were doing part-time work as security personnel in night clubs, Inspector Bondin said that MPA is proposing the creation of a list of possible part-time jobs police officers are allowed to take up.
“We need to sit down and identify a list of part-time jobs that a police officer can do without having a conflict of interest.”
Police extra duty works which would result in extra income have decreased, he explained.
“Let be clear, up until now, a police officer can have a part-time job and it’s totally up to the commissioner’s discretion to approve or not. But by creating a list, we can eliminate all grey areas.”