Mary Muscat

Police recruits should face a detailed psychological evaluation so that any issues relating to racial hatred may be flagged before they join the force, according to a former police inspector.

Lawyer and criminologist Mary Muscat, who has also lectured at the Police Academy, said all potential officers should go through such a test to help root out racism from the ranks.

She was speaking after three police officers were last week charged with kidnapping and assaulting foreign nationals.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said.

“All we have to do is emulate what other police forces in other European countries have done. In the UK, for example, the Metropolitan Police already use this tool to flag such issues so all we have to do is look at what they have done and do the same thing,” she added.

Muscat was, until recently, a lecturer at the Police Academy where she trained officers in policing hate crime as part of a training programme designed by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for police officers and prosecutors.

A lecturer at the faculty of laws as well as child advocate in the family and juvenile courts, Muscat insisted that this training programme addressed a range of topics including the concepts of diversity and intolerance, the impact of hate crimes, bias indicators, the investigation of hate crimes and goes into the national legislation aimed at countering hate crimes.

She said, however, that such training did not necessarily flag any racial hatred issues that may be present in specific recruits. The presence of a psychologist during one-to-one and group interviews stage would go a long way to flag possible concerns, she said.

Muscat, one of the candidates for the post of police commissioner in 2020, said she was not aware whether recruits were still receiving such training as she was stopped from lecturing at the academy since the number of recruits dwindled.

She was contacted following the arraignment of Luca Brincat, 20, and two of his colleagues, Rica Mifsud Grech, 22, and Jurgen Falzon, 24.

The three deny the charges, after their police colleagues reported how they would pick victims at random, injuring one so badly that he lost consciousness.

Brincat was also filmed threatening another victim with a knife and was accused of arresting a black man, even when he was identified as not being a troublemaker.

A court also heard claims that they would find migrants sleeping outside and taser them or use pepper spray on them.

Times of Malta revealed on Sunday how Brincat entered the force through the back door after failing his exams and was even allowed to take a second resit following one-to-one training.

A spokesperson for the police force said that all recruits are requested to provide a criminal conduct certificate and are subjected to in-depth security checks through the Malta Police Central Intelligence and Analysis Unit.

At the same time, checks on the individual are also performed on the National Police System, the official reporting system.

With regard to training covered during the recruitment stage, career progression courses and the continuous development programme, the spokesperson explained that officers and prospective officers are provided with sessions covering the Malta Police code of ethics, human rights, hate crime, policies and standard operating procedures, customer care, community policing and communication skills.

Practical sessions are also held with regard to the control and restraining of individuals, the police said.