‘To protect and serve’ is a motto adopted first by the Los Angeles Police Department in the United States of America and later widely adopted by other polices forces around the globe.  Although the Malta Police Force is not one of the forces to adopt that motto – its own motto is Lord Guide Us – protecting and serving is a central part of their mission.

That’s why the case which has seen three young police officers charged last week with abducting and beating foreign migrants has been greeted with such shock.

A court has heard that three police officers – Rica Mifsud Grech, Jurgen Falzon and Luca Brincat – who worked at the Hamrun district and who all recently joined the force would allegedly pick foreign nationals up at random, take them to an uninhabited place in Qormi, beat them up and leave them there.

One of the victims was injured so badly that he lost consciousness, while a video shared to a Whatsapp group chat also showed Brincat threatening another victim with a knife.

"In the video, Brincat is heard telling the man that he should stop causing trouble, 'or else!'. Brincat then proceeded to gesture as if he would slit his throat," prosecuting inspector Omar Zammit testified in court earlier this week.

While the trio are innocent until proven guilty, the allegations are shocking and are the pure antithesis of what the members of the police force should be doing throughout their service.

It also shines a light on the police’s recruiting processes: all three of these individuals were recent graduates from the police academy, and the Sunday Times of Malta reported yesterday that one of them – Brincat – even failed the academy but was eventually allowed in anyway.

While perhaps one cannot question the training process – which is known to be quite rigorous and comprehensive – itself, one can question the recruitment procedures themselves which the force applies.  In view of this case, the police should look into stricter procedures which weed out applicants with dubious histories and with dubious characters. 

As with anything no procedures is infallible and some will unfortunately still fall through the cracks, but at the same time stricter recruitment procedures would see that those who most glaringly should be wearing the police’s blue uniform never do.

However there is a flipside to this story: Falzon, Brincat and Mifsud Grech’s alleged actions were brought to light by some of their own colleagues.  It was their own colleagues who reported them to their superiors, and those superiors who took the matter higher up with a sense of urgency.

It was then other investigators and officers within the police force who investigated the matter and who took three of their own members to court.

The news tends to be unforgiving.  It takes for granted those who do their duty.  But we do appreciate those who do things as they should be done; those who are committed to uncovering wrongdoing, and to sticking to the line of duty.

Those within the police force shouldn’t be tainted by one brushstroke: by the same brushstroke used to taint those accused of these awful crimes. 

To them we say: have courage, keep on fighting the good fight.  Keep protecting and keep serving.