Many countries celebrate an annual Police Day. Here, in Malta, we do that on 15 July of each year and we do it in grand style. But what is its significance? Over the last few years, we have been drawn to the attention of politicians from both sides who argued and counter-argued on various issues and controversial measures, all in the name of the rule of law. Now one of the fundamental pillars of the rule of law is undoubtedly the respect for and the enforcement of the law with nobody being above it. Such observance and enforcement of the law is, according to our democratic legal system, the responsibility of the Executive Police.
Our Police Corps has been in the limelight during the last years perhaps for the wrong reasons, be it because of the wrong choice of the appointment of a Commissioner or because of suspect inaction with respect to certain events or because of undue interference by the political arm of the Executive. Be that as it may, even during such turbulent times for the Corps, the majority of police officers continued with their responsibility and duty of serving us ordinary citizens when we came in need of their intervention, protection or other services offered by them. Political polarization should not keep us from giving credit to whom and where it is due. On many occasions, there was more than one exemplary officer who went that extra mile in giving sterling service to the citizen, perhaps even when it was not due. Let us face it, the Police Service has really undergone radical changes in both its structural set-up as well as in the manner it functions. Commissioner Gafa’ is intrinsically bound to a specific mission statement and related vision for the Corps based on his intelligent and holistic approach.
We are talking of no less than 2,400 members of the Corps who every day go about protecting our community round the clock taking in their stride a lot of abuse from people who do not know them and simply do not like the police. Regardless of the reason, police officers respond to the call of duty. We should be aware that a good percentage of the people who do appreciate the police are out there, but it just solidifies it and makes it real, when people come and show appreciation as we should do, if not every now and then, at least on Police Day.
There are many reasons why all those officers, from top to bottom, deserve our thanks and respect. Too often, the hard and dangerous work that our police officers do goes unnoticed or at least unrecognised. Most people do not really think about what police do every day in their community until they need assistance from them. One has to be really in it to fully grasp how they work a dangerous job. This really cannot be overstated. Every day police officers leave the comfort of their homes in order to protect us from any dangerous elements in our community. They put themselves in dangerous situations that could end with them being hurt or even killed – all in the name of public safety. Indeed, there have been those unfortunate officers who gave up their lives in the line of duty and it is fitting that when commemorating Police Day we remember them in our thoughts and prayers and appreciate their ultimate sacrifice. It is not a job that many people sign up for, and it is sad that many of us ignore the good that police do on a daily basis.
They do the dirty work we do not want to. The Police Force was established for the maintenance of law and order. However, from its establishment, the police were engaged in a number of subsidiary duties of which some were really uninviting. One of the duties devolved upon the police in 1818 was the management of cleansing of the streets of the four cities. Fast forward to today and you see them doing the dirty work we do not wish to. Would you ever willingly go confront an intoxicated person outside your building at 2am? How about a drug addict? We do not want to deal with these people, so we call the police. Police officers deal with the worst people in our society all the time. That is not easy physically or mentally, and they do it so we do not have to.
They are given a bad image. In addition to going out and protecting their communities every day, police officers have to do their work with the knowledge that any mistake they make will be all over the media. People who never even interact with officers end up with negative images of them from the media coverage they get. They are not out to get you. Police do not want to hurt anyone. Their job is to protect, not harm their community. If we treat them with respect, they will treat us the same way. Officers take a lot of abuse from people who do not know them and simply do not like the police. Showing a little respect will go a long way when we are talking with the police.
They are human too. This is something that gets overlooked all the time. Maybe it is because of the uniform and the badge, but people often think that police are very different from them. Their children probably go to the same school as yours. They eat at the same restaurants as you do and they get their coffee at the same corner store. Too often we forget that police officers are human – they are not infallible and sometimes they make mistakes. That is not a good enough reason to treat them with contempt or try to make their job more difficult.
We must honour, protect and support our police officers and their families every day of the year.
Dr Mark Said is an advocate