There were elements of “corruption by omission” in the police force post-2014, former Police Inspector Mary Muscat, who was also an applicant for the post of Police Commissioner back in 2020, told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Muscat is contesting on the third district for the Nationalist Party.

Muscat left the police force in 2010, but kept in touch with fellow officers over the years who told her what was going on within the institution. Police officers told her that it was like new “unwritten rules” became apparent after 2014, such as not to investigate politicians and their families, she said.

There were also cliques forming at different ranks at that time, she said, resulting in some officers becoming outsiders.

Muscat joined the police force in 1997, after a year-long training course to become an inspector. “I left the force in April 2010, after my request to work reduced hours was denied. I had given birth to my daughter three years earlier, and due to the refusal, I didn't have any other option but to step down. Eventually I went into criminology and lectured police-related subjects at the University of Malta, such as crime prevention and media and crime. Later, there was a vacancy within the Faculty of Laws, with the new Masters in Advocacy, replacing the LLD. I went from criminal law into civil law. Later down the line, I went into child advocacy, working part-time with the family court.”

She also taught police recruits at the Academy until last year.

She is hopeful that things have improved under the new police administration (referring here to the change in the police commissioner in 2020). “They know they are under more scrutiny now than ever.”

But she believes an investigation is needed into the way the police operated during past years.

 

Is there a particular issue you want to highlight during your campaign?

Corruption and the police force – I'm sick and tired of hearing how the police force deteriorated as an institution. I was writing articles about it, but nothing is going to change by just writing. It has nothing to do with me having contested for the post of police commissioner. It’s an accumulation of issues. This was one of the main reasons I decided to contest, to do something about it.

 
You mentioned corruption and the criticism of the police force as your main campaign issue. You have police experience and also taught criminology. Many arguments over the past years linked corruption to the inadequacy of the police force…

Yes, there was corruption by omission by the police post-2014. Somebody had to investigate and follow-up on what was already very obvious, but nothing was done. That is a form of corruption.

Sometimes we assume that corruption is just about those committing the act. But by standing on the sidelines and just looking on, that is corruption by omission. Then, diverting attention away from it, you could say that is a secondary form of corruption. But it was so organised. That was what was shocking to me. So whoever was involved knew what they were doing. It is not the police force I knew. I started writing about it and even made presentations during conferences. I am referring here to the situation post-2014. Police officers were speaking to me about it.

You have to have experienced being a police officer to be able to see what was happening, talk about it, give it a name. From the outside looking in it might not be so obvious, as you need some inside information to know how the police force works. I was first an insider and later an outsider. Somebody needs to talk about it as nobody is picking up the gauntlet and doing anything about it, and that is scary.

 

What are some of the main things you noticed that were different to when you were an officer?

If you look at the Daphne Public Inquiry report, there is so much in there. Nobody can claim that the evidence is not real as it’s an inquiry, it’s there, printed. Even the fact that the police section dealing with money laundering and economic crimes was so understaffed back then. Then, whoever was supposed to follow up on leads just didn't do anything and used the infamous Nuremburg Trial excuse, I was only following orders. How can I live in a country knowing that the people who are meant to protect us were protecting criminals? It's unacceptable.

 

After you left the police force, you must have kept in touch with some of your colleagues.
I not only kept in touch with officers after leaving the force, but continued to teach police recruits criminal law.

 

There was speculation that police would receive orders from politicians; have any officers told you about such things?

Yes, and even worse than that.

Police officers only speak to a select few. Sometimes you have to coax them a bit to get at least part of the story. They talk to me as I have professional secrecy as a lawyer and usually they approach me for legal advice. Then they would have the floor and start talking about it. It is very difficult for a good officer to deal with it, look at it and be unable to do anything about it. It is very difficult to live with. Then you're afraid that you would suffer some form of retaliation just by knowing something. It’s very difficult for them.

 

What does that do to morale?

There's an American word for it, “de-policing”. You stop doing the job, take a step back. So the good officers had to be silenced, marginalised, outcast. Most people I knew from when I was in the force left. Imagine building a career, then having to truncate it because somebody else decides that the police are meant for something completely different.

I first began hearing about something going wrong in the force in 2014, 2015, when I began hearing about some really weird stories from police officers who were a part of the force at the time.

 

What were officers telling you post-2014?

It was mostly being told to ignore, indirectly or directly, to do that.

So there was an element of self-censorship?

Yes. You also had cliques forming at different ranks, so some officers would become outsiders, and that is already harmful to an officer. That results in a disintegration of teamwork and teamwork is very important for the police.

It was like there were new unwritten rules, that a few people created and unless you abided by them, then you were out.

 

Unwritten rules like what?

Like not to investigate politicians, to stay away from them, that if the officer did something, they would be transferred. Most of the time this was over politicians and their families. This is what officers had told me in confidence.

 

Did you hear whether this was endorsed by the Commissioners at the time?

There was speculation, but I am not sure. When you understand how it works, how the order gets filtered down, somebody has to start it somewhere further up the ranks. So it was definitely higher up than constables and sergeants; maybe not necessarily right from the top, but from somewhere high.

 

Was there a sense of fear expressed by the officers you kept in touch with?

Yes. A fear of something new being created; not knowing what it is and it not being the same uniform that they knew. It was a direct blow to the standard police culture.

Someone was creating a new culture, which reminded me, through my studies in law, of the culture in the 1980s when there were some very severe breaches of human rights. It was like a throwback, not a photocopy of the 80s, but in terms of principles they were heading in that direction. Hopefully now with the change in police administration, with the new commissioner and through public scrutiny, things are changing for the better.

After many years the court was telling the police force that they were not doing their job right. I'm hopeful that things have improved under the new police administration. They know they are under more scrutiny now than ever.

 

What about today? People would argue that there has been a change in the way the police force is acting. Do you think it has improved?

It is more streamlined and organised in terms of management. There was a restructuring. Hopefully now with the change in police administration, with the new commissioner, and through public scrutiny, things are changing.

But when you look at the number of recruits, they are dwindling. They are at an all-time low. I used to have four classes of 30 students each, trying to keep up with the syllabus in time for the exams. Now you would just have one or two classes. I was teaching at the academy up until last year, mostly recruits, when the syllabus changed.

 

Do you think there needs to be an investigation into the way the police operated during that period?

Internally, definitely. Possibly an outside investigation also.

 

Do you think people need to be prosecuted?

What I'm afraid of is that, by now, the evidence of possible wrongdoing by political figures and their families must have been destroyed. Because wasting time is another strategy of corruption by omission, as is not preserving evidence. That is what I am afraid of.

If you look at the Public Inquiry into the Assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, we definitely need a similar inquiry into the internal workings of the police force. But again, I'm pretty sure any evidence has long been destroyed.

 

We've seen many different police commissioners over recent years, who were the most to blame?

What worries me is that nobody stopped the buck; it just kept being passed around. I'm sorry to say this, as I know most of them and have worked with most of them. I represent Malta on one of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) and every time I turn up for internal working groups, one of the first questions I am asked is what is going on in Malta. Be it greylisting, questions about how many commissioners we have had in recent years… it’s ridiculous.

 

Has the reputation of the Maltese Police Force specifically been damaged abroad?

Yes. It’s not just the greylisting. Within the right circles where people are authorities in policing and law enforcement.

 

You said you represent Malta on CEPOL, are there foreign law enforcement agencies that show an element of distrust towards Maltese law enforcement?

Informally yes. They ask me how we can do such things as an EU country. That's how far the standards had deteriorated.

 

This is your first election campaign, but there have been some major changes to the electoral laws. What is your opinion on the gender balance mechanism?

If I were 18 years old and was still starting out I would probably say I don't agree with it. But I'm 51, raising a daughter with disability... I don't have the resources. So at this point I say thank you, I appreciate it.

I think it depends on the stage in life that you find yourself in. When you're focusing on raising a child it’s harder to campaign in some ways.

Most of my canvassing is done over the phone as when my daughter arrives home from school I am not able to go door-to-door campaigning, so I have to campaign over the phone. It's harder.

 

You are Fr David Muscat's twin. He's made controversial statements in the past and is currently charged with hate speech. Do you agree with his views?

I had spoken to him when there was the Norman Lowell incident. I asked him: “do you remember what my daughter has? You're her uncle”. I told him not to go in that direction.

Personally, it hurt even more as, when I was a police officer, I belonged to a unit that would actually prosecute Norman Lowell on hate crimes. So my Unit had been arresting him and yet my twin is buddies with him... that was shocking to me.

At the time I was posted at the Prosecutions Unit and I was also the representative of the police force on the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). I was a spokesperson for the police every time they would come to conduct an evaluation of the police, the prison and others. I had also undergone OSCE anti-hate crime awareness training as part of the job and then passed on that training to new recruits.

There is a court case ongoing, and I respect that, so I will not comment on it. But while his points on the economy have merit, he makes politically incorrect statements, and I don’t agree with his style of advocacy.

 

What other topics do you want to bring to light during your campaign?

One important topic for me is the PN's plan for children with disabilities, through which parents of these children will have their minds at rest that their children will be catered for.

As a lawyer, parents of persons with disability come to me and ask how they would draw up their wills, how they would divide the house and the money as they would have other children. Would they file for an interdiction and assign a curator? These are real questions that parents go through. To have a one-stop-shop with professionals who will help draw up a plan is very important. It is a major issue.

Another issue is to improve the Family Courts, re-organising it to work better without having any backlogs.

The third issue is environmental law enforcement. I teach eco-offences to LESA and this is a very particular area. It is one of the areas the police need to work more on. We focus too much on hunting and the protection of certain species isn't as much of a focus for instance. The police would need to work with other agencies like the ERA to accomplish better results. The lack of knowledge about the law is something that needs to be tackled. We either focus on waste collection or hunting and anything else in between is not really being focused on.