Trust in the police is picking up as it starts reaping the benefits of a five-year project to overhaul the entire force, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà said on Monday.

He said that when the project was launched a year ago, the police trust rating stood at 49 per cent but in one year it climbed to 60 per cent.

Addressing a press conference a year since the launch of the transformation strategy, Gafà said this was not a checklist of things that had to be done but a continuous process of change and updating.

“The important thing is that change is not being done for the sake of change but in order to make the police force more relevant in the dynamic environment we live in,” he said, insisting that professionalism and trust were the cornerstones of this process.

"Having a police force that has a high trust rating and is flexible and innovative are the key pillars this strategy aims to achieve," Gafà said. He said a 2,300-person force was not easy to manage, especially in terms of standards and accountability so the force adopted anti-corruption rules to always keep these standards high.

Police officers can report their own peers about certain crimes without action being taken against them.

The force, he said, had also introduced an internal audit department and was in the process of rolling our surprise drug tests for all members of the force. From the end of this year, police officers will be asked to take this drug test. Anyone who refuses may be expelled. An internal consultation is underway to put the procedure into effect.

Gafà said the force was also in the process of engaging more civilians with six per cent of the force currently non-uniformed officers.

He also recalled that a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the University of Malta which will be providing programmes of studies for police officers. Another MoU with the British High Commission will lead to further enhancement of policing services.

Gafa also listed numerous other measures introduced in the past year such as tracking police cars to increase efficiency.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said the police force has to adapt to modern times while also being prepared for the future.

"The easiest thing I could have done as a minister is move things along and leave the status quo, but the transformation strategy was a more sensible way of doing things,” he said.

He said that the public could already feel the changes that were being made through the implementation of various policies, new services such as the Domestic Violence Unit, and also a change in the management structures of the force.

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