Efforts to have police officers present in certain tourism hotspots fizzled out after only a year, it has emerged, despite the government hailing the project “a success” and promising to expand to Gozo.

Replying to a question in Parliament by Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said that the project’s implementation had ended in 2017. 

[attach id="731148" size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Edward Zammit Lewis announcing the setting up of the Tourism Police pilot project.[/attach]

The project, he said, had been implemented by the Tourism Ministry. 

Two years ago, some 41 police officers had completed specialised training that enabled them to carry out rounds in Sliema and St Julian’s. The officers had at the time gone through several weeks of training at the tourism institute as well as at the Police Training Academy in Ta’ Kandja. 

Dr Zammit Lewis announcing the launch back in 2016. Screenshot: Twitter

In 2017, Foreign Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela, who at the time served as the minister responsible for the police, had hailed the pilot project “a success” and, as a result, government officials were in the process of exploring whether it could be extended. 

The plan, he had said at the time, was to also introduce such officials in Gozo. Edward Zammit Lewis, then Tourism Minister, had pointed to the increase in the number of people visiting Malta, saying this added burden meant more officers were required to “keep the peace and fight crime”. 

No public announcement was ever made that the project had been stopped.

Asked why the project was dropped after a year, despite it being heralded a success, a spokesman for the Tourism Ministry said that currently, there is an “ongoing review on the results of this pilot project”. 

“The Ministry for Tourism and the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security are in discussion to design a more effective scheme. 

“In this regard, all stakeholders will be consulted on the matter before the scheme is launched,” the spokesman said. 

Replies to questions by Times of Malta on how many officers were involved in the project and when it would be relaunched remained unanswered.