Ninety per cent of the population trust the police but at varying levels, a National Statistics Office survey has found.

The survey, carried out in May and June last year in collaboration with the Malta Police Force, sought the public’s opinion on trust, integrity, professionalism, service, image, and community policing. 

It was carried out among 1,553 individuals aged 18 and over who live in private households.

A total 44.9% had a high level of trust, another 45.1% expressed a moderate level of trust, while 9.7% per cent trusted the police slightly or not at all. 

Respondents gave reasons justifying their trust in the police.

A total 48.9% of those trusting the police a lot perceived the police as acting with fairness, dignity and respect. Another 40.2% said that their presence is felt, while 31.5% said the police acted when called.

Respondents who do not fully trust the police also gave their reasons. 

A total 27.6% per cent of this group said that the police are never around, 24.5% said that the police do not act with fairness, dignity and respect, and 19.4% said that the police failed to act or respond when called. Respondents could have chosen more than one attribute to their trust or mistrust. 

Respondents were asked about their perceptions of the MPF on specific characteristics ranging from integrity to impartiality. 59.6% perceived the MPF to have a high level of integrity against 27.1% who neither agreed nor disagreed with this proposition.

Some  68.5% saw them as providing a professional level of service and 54.1% as impartial enforcers of the law. Those who neither agreed nor disagreed with the professionalism of the MPF made up 22% and those who neither agreed nor disagreed with the impartiality of the MPF accounted for 30%.

Experiences involving the police

Nearly a third of the population (32.7%) had some type of contact with the MPF during the 12 months preceding the survey. Contact was defined as lodging a report, being involved in an accident, being questioned, being stopped during a police inspection, issued a fine by a police officer, and others. 

Two-thirds of these rated their experience as good or very good, while 18.2% rated it as bad or very bad. 14.8% said their experience had been neither good nor bad.

Type of service 

Respondents were asked about the type of service they would prefer to see an increase in, given a choice. 79.5% would prefer more visibility of police officers on the road and 18% were in favour of access to a nearer police station.

Image 

Just over half of the respondents (53.2%) said that they do not follow the MPF on social media. 30.3% observed that the MPF had undergone a good or very good level of modernisation in its public image and operations during the year preceding the survey.

But the biggest segment - 48.6% - thought that modernisation in these two aspects had been moderate. 

Community policing teams 

Community policing is built on the concept of community building and problem-solving. 

Over two-thirds of the population were aware of community policing teams (CPT), although the extent of this awareness varied according to the regions where community policing is implemented and the regions where it has not been rolled out yet.