Trust and confidence in the police are essential for law enforcement to maintain its authority and uphold public order. Without trust, people are less likely to report crimes to the police or cooperate with investigations.
It is difficult to gauge the Maltese public’s confidence level in the police. According to a National Statistics Office survey, in 2022, 90% of Maltese trusted the Malta Police Force. This sounds too good to be true.
The Global Trustworthiness Index concludes that in the same year, just 41% of US citizens and 44% of Britons trusted the police. The highest level of trust in the police in Europe was in Denmark and the Netherlands, with 58% of Danes and Dutch saying they trust their police force.
Is this another example of wanting to project ourselves as ‘the best in Europe’?
Most local citizens’ concerns about the performance of the police are not so much linked with police brutality, as in the US, but with their inability to keep people safe. The various domestic violence cases that have too often resulted in femicides are just one area where many are doubting the effectiveness of the police in preventing crime even when they are forewarned of potential risks by vulnerable persons.
So, what do ordinary people consider the top tasks the police must prioritise? Without local research data available on this subject, I have to rely on a study by a UK research company on this issue. A 2023 IPSOS poll in the UK indicates what people expect from the police. Increasing the visibility of uniformed police presence, increasing resources to investigate complex crimes like murder and financial crime, and increasing resources to prevent offences or crimes before they happen were among the top priorities for those who participated in the survey.
Equally essential priorities were improving responses to antisocial behaviour, investing in better technology to prevent or deter crime, and increasing resources to respond to mental health incidents. I am sure that the Maltese have expectations similar to those of UK citizens and other Europeans.
Of course, different groups in society experience policing differently. There is not just one thing called the ‘general public’, that has the same experience.
Without trust, people are less likely to report crimes to the police or cooperate with investigations
There are many different experiences of policing. Some want the police to be more intrusive in investigating abuse of power and mismanagement of public funds. Others prioritise the importance of timely police intervention when they alert them of possible domestic abuse. Some want the police to tackle small-ticket crimes like antisocial behaviour, breach of traffic regulations, and petty crimes like shoplifting.
Police priorities must be based on a risk assessment of a particular class of crimes. The police, for instance, need more support from the health authorities in a scenario in which persons with mental health challenges like paranoid schizophrenia are free to roam our streets, as mental health facilities are malfunctioning.
I struggle to understand why we spend millions to convince people to stop smoking to improve their health prospects but then allow them to use marijuana and other recreational drugs that can cause psychiatric problems. Underfunded mental health services mean police officers often have to deal with patients when they should be fighting crime.
Our law courts also have a role in making the criminal justice system more functional. The backlog of court criminal cases must be reduced. Legislators must also ensure that criminal laws are updated regularly to prevent shrewd lawyers from finding loopholes that can easily let criminals off the hook on legal technicalities.
The police exist to serve all citizens equally. Victims who are not vulnerable should still receive a good level of service from the police when they need it; it is not either-or. In too many cases, victims lose confidence in the system and withdraw from the process entirely.
Rather than conducting futile surveys on citizens’ confidence in the police, an independent commission should conduct an in-depth exercise to determine what needs to be done to increase the public’s trust in the police.
We must not ignore the dangerous and distressing conditions that police officers are requested to face on a daily basis. In a world filled with everchanging threats to personal safety, it is the police that we rely on to keep us safe.
The future of policing will depend on two main elements: the quality of the police force’s leadership and the resources the government gives them to carry out their tasks.
Complacency and a missing sense of urgency are public trust’s worst enemies.