Malta is safer now compared to a few years ago as crime in hotspots such as Paceville was on a downward trend, Police Commissioner Laurence Cutajar said on Monday.

“We have solved murders which up to some years ago we thought we would never solve, and I feel proud that despite economic growth and a huge influx of tourists, in 2018 crime fell by 7 per cent – the largest drop since 2009,” he said.

The current crime rate translates to 34 per 1,000 inhabitants which makes Malta one of the safest countries in the world, Mr Cutajar added.

Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar.

The police commissioner was speaking during a news conference marking the signing of a memorandum of understanding for closer collaboration between the police and the Malta Gaming Authority.

Appointed in August 2016, after serving as acting commissioner for the previous three months, Mr Cutajar’s tenure has been controversial from the very beginning.

A day after having been appointed as acting commissioner, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had published partisan political Facebook comments he had made in support of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in August 2013.

Mr Cutajar has been repeatedly criticised for the way the police have handled, or not handled, claims of financial impropriety especially those involving the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

The police also came under fire following the murder of Ms Caruana Galizia. The alleged killers were arrested and arraigned in less than three months but the masterminds have not been identified.

In his address on Monday, Mr Cutajar heaped praise on Assistant Commissioner Ian Abdilla, who heads the Economic Crimes Unit, which handles money laundering investigations.

In the last three years, he said, this section had been beefed up to step up the fight against new forms of crime including money laundering and illegal online gaming.

“This unit has a difficult job and many times is mentioned by the media not for positive reasons,” he said.

This MOU signed on Monday will result in close collaboration in the fight against economic crimes and illegal online gaming, through the sharing of information and expertise. Other benefits will be the provision of technical training both for police officers and MGA employees.

Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said this initiative was part of efforts to provide more resources to the police force. He noted that the force had managed to secure EU funds to acquire new software, by the name of Hercules III, which make it possible to have a single centralised information database. This project will make it possible to access external information to make it easier to trace suspicious activity.

PN: Malta has a worsening crime problem

Meanwhile, the shadow minister for home affairs, Beppe Fenech Adami, told a PN press conference that Malta has a major crime problem.

While the prime minister was saying that Malta was a safe country, ordinary people were increasingly concerned about their safety, the security of their homes and impunity in some quarters. 

It was evident, he said, that there was organised crime in Malta.

Malta also had a situation where a man was murdered simply because of the colour of his skin, a journalist had been killed, and where the Commissioner of Police refused to investigate serious cases of corruption.

The government was more intent on taking over control of the courts than ensuring that justice was done.