The sight of an open police station in Malta has become so rare, that one wouldn't be blamed to have a double take, to confirm if their eyes were playing some sort of funny trick on them! Some police stations haven't received a whiff of fresh air since the last round of elections, when they served as glorified post offices to distribute voting documents. Once the legally prescribed period for document collection from the stations was over, clack went the lock on the navy-blue doors, and no one's seen the inside of one of them ever since.

Currently we have a situation, where a minimum number of stations is being opened, as the local operation has been distilled to a few main stations such as Valletta, Hamrun, Birkirkara, Paola, St Julian's or Sliema. The remaining stations, in the majority of localities around Malta and Gozo, remain closed indefinitely.

I will not go into the detail of listing each of the closed stations and where citizens are expected to travel if they need to get the simplest police assistance from. For example, anyone from Tarxien, Luqa or Fgura, is expected to go to the Paola station to make a report or seek police assistance. If you happen to be in Rabat, Dingli or Mdina, it's all the way to Mtarfa that you need to travel.  St Julian's now covers San Gwann, Swieqi and Pembroke, while Zejtun is good for Kirkop, Safi and Mqabba.

The list goes on, but you get the idea. 

Naturally, the result of such a situation is multifaceted and quite worrying. The fact that the vast majority of stations are remaining closed daily means that in many of our towns and villages, we do not have a regular police presence. This means that in the case of an emergency, citizens do not have a place to go to for help. They are expected to skip town and travel ridiculous distances to get assistance.

This does not augur well for law and order in our centres. During a recent press conference, the Nationalist Party expressed its worries about this becoming a norm, which people are expected to accept with no discussion. We pointed out how closed police stations meant an increase in incidents of vandalism, theft, and general mischief. Our families deserve safer localities, like they once knew.

This situation also exerts extra pressure on the stations that are in fact being opened. They are serving the role of mega-stations with enormous catchment areas, and with proportionately large challenges with them. The burn-out on these stations and the officers that run them is simply unfair.

I laud the introduction of the community police; however, this should have never been done at the detriment of our local police stations. To create one good thing, we didn't need to dismantle an older institution which worked perfectly before. The two can work hand in hand, supporting each other because one does not replace the other.

The services offered by community police are limited when compared to those available at a station. Same can be said about the shifts worked by community officers which do not cover the entire 24 hours of the day. One needs the other to cover all the needs of our society.

The Nationalist Party is adamant about investing in the police corps, increasing its personnel and making sure it can stand up to the challenges of our times. A new Nationalist government will increase the number of officers in the force to make sure that police stations open regularly and are properly manned to provide the necessary peace of mind in our communities.

The Prime Minister and Minister Camilleri, sadly, are failing to give the needed priority to our local offices, nibbling yet another chunk from the quality of life of our families in our localities. Together with Commissioner Gafa, they remain answerable for this sorry situation.

Dr Darren Carabott is the Opposition's Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Security and Reforms, and President of the Public Accounts Committee.