Our police corps is failing at the very basics.

Not long ago, we read how a foreigner complained of poor treatment by the police when they dismissed him when he tried to file a report. That was not an isolated incident.

Do you recall how not long ago the police incredibly failed to enforce a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) of Iosif Galea, the former Malta Gaming Authority compliance officer, in connection with money laundering and tax evasion charges? The police in Malta were legally responsible for stopping him, but they didn't for over a year. It was only while he was on holiday in Italy that he was finally duly arrested on the strength of a German arrest warrant.

Before that, there was the case of Ryan Schembri, the former boss of the defunct More Supermarket chain, who, inexplicably slipped out of the hands of the police and left Malta in 2014. The police only issued an international arrest warrant seven years after Schembri had absconded.

In January 2023, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa was heavily criticised by the court for botching up an open and shut case of a man caught in the act of hunting illegally on a public holiday.

More serious than that, we had too many high-profile cases failing to come under the radar of the police to be duly seriously and fully investigated and consequently prosecuted by the Attorney General.

We can't easily forget how the Economic Crimes Unit failed to act against Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri or how the police still haven't prosecuted anyone from Pilatus Bank despite receiving clear orders to do so following a 2021 magisterial inquiry.

The situation gets even more serious when recalling how the police did not get down to whoever was behind the benefit fraud scandal, the suspicious activity behind the questionable issue of several identity cards by Identita' or the driving licence corruption scandal within Transport Malta.

Yet the biggest failure to investigate and prosecute was concerning the Vitals case, which involved huge amounts of money. The justification of (in)action was the unacceptable excuse that there was a magisterial inquiry underway.

So what should one make out of all this unprecedented dereliction of duty on the part of the police corps?

It is about time that our police make sure that crimes involving state officials are investigated effectively. This kind of inappropriate behaviour and attitude is affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of the force.

Why has policing become so broken, and who is to blame?

Incompetent, corrupt, outdated approaches: perhaps our police set-up is in dire need of a revolution, not reform. Neither a change in leadership nor a culling of the ranks-a mass "bad apple" purge-would solve its problems. Instead, something more radical is needed: a complete reimagining of how we are policed and of what the police are for. Police incompetence is a symptom, not the cause of mediocrity.

We need a politically impartial police service that refrains from taking partisan positions. The politicisation of the Maltese police is the result of the exertion of strong political pressures bearing upon police work and organisation, coupled with a lack of police willingness to be more open and accountable to the public.

The top brass of our police corps knows how the lawmakers have been elected and how strong they are. But the ruling government, perhaps to ensure the subservience and obedience of the law enforcement agencies and bureaucracy, has been on a spree to politicise the police force.

How can one not acknowledge the fact that the political use of police is an issue of serious concern and that we have been avoiding this real problem for a long time for personal or partisan benefits?

True, statistics show that a majority of people trust our police service, but I perceive a societal disquiet about it, despite success in many murder investigations, countering the threat of terror and policing major events.

The media and NGOs must do more to keep the police on their toes and ensure they, like all public or political bodies, are accountable.

Apparently, it has become impossible for this government to use the police primarily in the interest of public service instead of serving the interests of the ruling government and the ruling party.

 

Dr Mark Said is a lawyer