The government is considering plans to make bodycams available to members of LESA after a 67% reduction in violence and claims against the police since their introduction in 2021, the home affairs minister said on Monday.

He was speaking at the opening of a debate on a bill which introduces harsher penalties against those who assault public officers, including the police.

Camilleri said that while incidents such as those recently witnessed in Hamrun and Sliema were exceptions, society needed to act firmly.

The country needed to see a culture of respect among its people and a culture of respect for those in authority, such as the police.

It was normal for people to disagree, but disagreements needed to be addressed with mutual respect and within the procedures established by society.  

Camilleri said there could be cases where even those in authority did not act correctly, but even in such cases, there were lawful ways how one could tackle such matters. Violence could never be tolerated.

The messages which this bill conveyed, he said, were those of deterrence and respect.  

This Bill was part of a process of initiatives to strengthen the police and other forces of law and order.

The bill was based on two principles – that those convicted could not be given a suspended sentence, and the range of fines and imprisonment which the courts could impose were being increased.

The minister stressed that while this bill should deter violence against the police, those officers who acted incorrectly would still be held to account.

He said that over the past few years there were many cases of people making serious allegations against police officers.

Thankfully the introduction of bodycams had seen a sharp drop in violence as well as allegations. Indeed, the bodycams were a form of protection for both the officers and ordinary citizens because one could see what truly happened.

This Bill, he said, showed respect to the police, in the same way as respect was shown when the government introduced the police accident benefit scheme and the right to union membership for all forces of law and order, as well as new more generous collective agreements.  

Camilleri said he would also like to see people not continue to instigate people to disobey the police – as had been done in public protests outside police headquarters and outside parliament. That, too, could never be justified. This was a democracy and disagreements should be addressed by discussion or before the proper institutions.