Editorial

The police are never out of the public eye, even though most of their work is done quietly and goes unreported. The police never sleep, and while most of us retire to the relative safety of our homes, a number of them, every night, patrol the streets and often risk their lives to keep the streets and nightlife safe.

Every now and then some shortcoming, or misbehaviour, on the part of some individuals in the force draws flack. But this should not lead to trivial generalisations about the effectiveness of the force. Whenever anything goes wrong in our society, we look to the police for control and order. They, on their part, need to be properly organised, motivated and trained. It is pointless to expect good returns from a police force that is badly trained and ill-deployed.

Fortunately for us, the force has been looking up for a number of years, with better organisation, recruitment and formation. It is true that reports of spectacular robberies, housebreaking and angry resort to knives and shotguns, often sadden the local news, but then criminals nowadays are getting more professional, more desperate through drug addiction, and also more violent through erosion of values in our society as well as through a dangerous and unexplainable shortening of tempers everywhere.

Speaking at the passing-out parade of 100 new officers who took their oath after an intensive nine-week basic training course (which brought the staff complement in the force to 1,890), Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg reminded those present that with European Union membership, Maltese police officers will be able to take part in a number of training courses abroad.

It is not that anything done overseas is automatically better than when it is done locally. But overseas training will inevitably forge bridges, cement liaisons and generate friendship. All these things are very valid acquisitions for the forces of peace-keeping, particularly when one remembers that criminals very often organise themselves across frontiers.

Bearing fanciful names, these programmes include Stop, on the trafficking of illegal immigrants and sexual exploitation of children; Daphne, on violence to women and children; Falcone, on organised crime; Odysseus, on illegal immigration and refugees; Oisin, on law enforcement and Hippokrates, on crime prevention, particularly crime among young people in cities, and drugs.

The police will also have the opportunity of cooperating actively with their counterparts in EU member states through Europol.

The minister went on to explain that better training of the force was serving well, and he was glad to report a 40 per cent drop in serious crime since 1998. Car thefts too have decreased.

Police Commissioner John Rizzo urged the new officers to further their studies and told them there were ample opportunities in the force for those who wanted to progress. Qualifications of prospective officers have been raised, the number has been increased and pay has gone up to the tune of Lm13 million to cover all work, allowances and overtime.

Dr Borg says that new rights have been granted to victims. More offence categories have been created and some fines have increased.

All this shows that despite limited resources and shortcomings on the part of some members, the force is moving ahead and proving to be more efficient than it has ever been before.