The Malta Police Force has more deputy and assistant police commissioners than the London Metropolitan Police, whose force is some 17 times the size.
An exercise carried out by The Sunday Times of Malta also showed that the Maltese force has more officers serving in its second and third highest positions than its counterparts in Ireland (An Garda Síochána), and more third-ranking officials than the much larger Police Scotland.
Last week seven new assis-tant police commissioners were appointed, bringing the total number of officers holding the Malta Police Force’s third highest rank to 10.
This followed the appointment of the three deputy commissioners last month. When the Nationalist government was voted out in March, there was one deputy commissioner and eight assistant commissioners.
The London Met has one deputy commissioner and four assistant commissioners. According to official figures, there were 30,398 full-time officers serving in the Met as of March 31, 2013.
In comparison, there are roughly 1,800 serving members of the Malta Police Force, according to the Malta Police Association website.
This means there is one assistant police commissioner in Malta for every 180 serving members of the force. In London the figure is one assistant commissioner for every 7,600 serving members.
The Met also employs directors of resources, human resources and information, who are equal to the assistant police commissioners in the chain of command.
Furthermore, assistant commissioners in London are assisted by deputy assistants and commanders – ranks which do not exist in Malta.
In Ireland, An Garda Síochána has one commissioner, one deputy commissioner and eight assistant commissioners, according to its website.
There were 13,159 serving Garda members as of September 30, 2013. That means there is one assistant commissioner in Ireland for every 1,645 serving members of the force.
Police Scotland, which employs 17,436 serving officers, has a chief constable rather than a police commissioner at the top of its command structure. The Scottish force has four deputy chief constables next in its chain of command, followed by six assistant chief constables.
The Home Affairs Ministry said comparisons between Malta’s police force and forces overseas was problematic, as the Maltese corps was assigned numerous duties normally given to coast guards, park rangers, crime detectives and legal prosecutors in other countries.
Home Affairs chief of staff Silvio Scerri offered to meet this newspaper this week to fully explain the restructuring of the force. He said by e-mail that the restructuring was the result of a study which showed how to fight modern crime effectively.
According to the latest organisational chart of the Malta Police Force, three deputy commissioners have separately been assigned responsibility for ‘crime’, ‘field’ and ‘security and administration’, which are effectively three different departments.
The assistant commissioners have each been given responsibility for one of 10 areas: ‘crime’, ‘drugs and vice’, ‘economic crimes’, ‘region A’, region B’, ‘protective services’, planning and strategy’, international relations’, ‘administration’ and ‘immigration’.
Each of these feed into one of the departments overseen by the deputy commissioners.