Editorial: Will cameras save Paceville?

CCTV cameras will be installed across Paceville to try to promote a semblance of law and order in the entertainment mecca.

Previous measures – from trying to close the public garden at night to boosting police presence – failed to make a noticeable impact.

Let us start with the 40 cameras – part of a €2 million investment covering Paceville, St Paul’s Bay, Marsa and Paola.

These have been on the cards for years and were promised in January 2024, apparently to be installed by this summer “to reduce crime and deter abuse”, according to Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri.

The delay hardly fills the public with confidence.

There is no doubt that CCTV cameras have an important role to play in ensuring public safety and deterring abuse – just as mobile phone footage leaked to the media – but that will only work if it is part of a brave package of measures including strict enforcement of the law.

They will have little impact on tourists and international students who are here one day and gone tomorrow, before they can face any repercussions for less-than-ideal behaviour caught on film, if they can even be recognised.

The starting point of any approach is enforcement, which would cover drinking in the street, underage drinking, partying and sleeping on the beach, having trained and licensed bouncers, limiting noise pollution and pushing back on the take-up of public space.

Spot checks are clearly not enough as the stream of negative stories continues. Fines need to be high enough to be a real deterrent, for a start.

Having a vibrant entertainment area – as opposed to one that churns out stories that make our head hang in shame – also needs to be part of an overall strategy: What tourists do we want to attract when Paceville and its surrounding are simply surrounded by bars and clubs with practically no other forms of entertainment provided?

Which foreign language schools are failing to protect their minor students?

We can choose to go for more quality if we have the courage to stand up to greed and vested interests.

The free-for-all has resulted in an area that is in the news all too often for racism, fights, sexual harassment and hooliganism, while deterring those who would otherwise be encouraged to go there.

There's nothing wrong with having an entertainment hub like Paceville, but does it have to looks and feel so sleazy, with the likelihood of witnessing a fight on nearly every visit?

The public deserves to feel safe and to have trust that law enforcement will root out any unlicensed or improper behaviour, without fear or favour. But we are not holding our breath.

This shambles has not happened overnight. Paceville has been a nightlife area for decades, and has had its fair share of problems, but the sheer numbers of people, the types of entertainment available and the utter disregard for rules and regulations have created a mess that will be hard to resolve.

Not only have we ignored Paceville’s structural problems for years, but we also assumed that Valletta can somehow self-regulate to avoid ending up the same way – with similarly dire consequences. And we see Valletta going down the same slippery slope.

With the government’s strategy envisaging many more tourists in the years to come, the authorities will need a lot more than CCTV cameras to stop the mayhem in Paceville.