The Police Force aims to keep theft crime low and not allow it to return to 2019 levels, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa has told this newsroom.

Gafa was interviewed by The Malta Independent on Sunday over the news that the police received a total of 15,769 reports of crime in 2021, which is very close to the total number of crime reports received in 2019. These include reports related to theft, drugs, fraud, domestic violence and all other crimes. Gafa said that this figure should be interpreted within context and it is mainly the result of increased police proactivity and enhanced enforcement, better recording of police reports and increased awareness, hence reducing the dark figure of crime. He added that “we are victims of our own success”.

2020 had seen a major reduction in crime reports, with 13,089 of such reports having been filed. 2020 was a very particular year due to the severe impact Covid-19 had on the country, and on the opportunity for crime. The argument has also been made that 2021 might also need to be looked at through a similar lens, given that Covid still had an impact on the country. The Commissioner agreed.

"We knew that in 2021 it would have been a challenge for us to keep crime at 2020 levels. 2020 saw a particular social context due to the pandemic. You will never see a drastic reduction in crime reports as we witnessed in 2020 when compared to 2019," he said.

There are a number of things one must keep in mind when looking at the 2021 statistics he said, including the type of crime that saw an increase and those which decreased or remained stable.

Discussing theft reports, the Commissioner said that it was going to be very difficult to keep theft at 2020 levels. He noted that theft reports had dropped by 30% in 2020 when compared to 2019. In 2020, there were 4,578 theft reports while in 2019, these numbered 6,631. Still, theft reports in 2021 decreased, he said, emphasising that this was the result of more targeted policing.

While the largest number of crime reports received by the police in 2021 was for theft, 4,478 reports, the Police Commissioner said that this was the lowest amount the country has ever registered since the Police Incident Reporting System was introduced in 1998.

This newsroom asked the Commissioner whether he expects theft reports to start to rise, given that 2021 saw a number of restrictions and low tourism numbers, with the Covid situation easing over time. The Commissioner said "2021 was still not a normal year. It was not as exceptional as 2020 and so technically, we should have expected theft to slightly increase as the opportunity for crime was greater". He said that the statistics for last month indicate a rise over January 2021; however, he said the police will not allow theft crime to return to pre-pandemic levels. 

There are certain subcategories of theft that had been on a steep downward trajectory even before Covid hit such as pickpocketing (although 2020 saw a massive reduction due to Covid), he said.

There were some reductions between 2020 and 2021 in theft categories, which Covid would have had little or no impact. As an example, the Commissioner mentioned the 27 armed robbery reports in 2021. "In 2020 there were 40 while in 2005 and 2006 there were 61 armed robberies each year," he said. "In a situation where wearing a mask became obligatory, a rise in this category was a major fear for us.” He said that the police are seeing increased success in tackling armed robberies and charging those responsible. Another form of theft that reduced in 2021 over 2020 was theft from occupied residences, he said. "Theft is one of the types of crime that, through our work, we can really prevent," he said.

The Commissioner also said that in the past, certain specialised squads were not logging crime reports in the Police Incident Reporting System and thus they were not included in the statistics in previous years. "For example, if the Drugs squad would catch someone importing drugs into Malta, it is likely that the report would not have been included in the past. They would open a CID file but would not file a report in the Police Incident Reporting System for confidentiality reasons.” In the beginning of 2021, this changed, he said, and this had an impact on the crime figures.

"Last year we had a more factual picture of the real situation in Malta than in the past,” he said.

Another reason for the increase in drug reports, he said, is due to an increased number of police road checks carried out in 2021. "We found a lot of situations which, for example, were related to marijuana possession, which was illegal in those quantities until December. Drug possession saw more than a threefold increase when compared to 2020." There were 441 drug possession reports in 2021 compared to 140 cases in 2020.

The Commissioner expects drug reports to reduce this year given the new cannabis regulations.

There are certain crime report statistics that have risen due to increased awareness, he said. Domestic violence is one such example. In 2021, 1,741 domestic violence reports were filed with the police, up from 1,645 in 2020. He said that he believes that domestic violence is one of the crimes which makes up a large part of the “dark figure of crime”, which are crimes not reported to the police. In addition, he said that the vast majority of domestic violence reports in 2021 were for psychological harm (1,170 reports), adding that this means people are not allowing such situations to result in physical harm before filing a report. This, he said, means that awareness campaigns are working and more victims are coming forward even before there is physical abuse.

Fraud reports saw a large increase in 2021 with 2,376 reports when compared to 811 reports in 2020. The Commissioner said that the police are witnessing a shift from crimes taking place within a physical environment to ones commissioned in a virtual environment. "This was also the case as more people were housebound due to Covid. We saw a 220% increase in fraudulent gains reports, likely due to a rise in online fraud. There would be people who file a report when receiving a fraudulent message and that would be included in the statistics. Most of these reports were online fraud cases. This is an area where the police cannot do much to prevent the occurrence of these offences except to increase awareness.”

He said that a dedicated unit was created within the Financial Crimes Investigations Department to deal with online fraud cases. When someone is defrauded by someone abroad, the police communicate with the police force in the respective country, he said. However, some countries won't investigate unless the amount reaches certain thresholds, he said. "Although in some cases we cannot do much, we still investigate and while we recognise it is not easy, we don't give up. We had cases where the perpetrators were in Malta and were charged in court."