Growing pressures on police

I am saddened by the loss of life in the Qormi shooting, as much for the deceased and his family, and in equal measure for the two policemen who felled him in their line of duty as defenders of the peace of the citizens of this country.

From what one reads in newspaper reports, these two men, currently being treated for shock while "assisting the police with their enquiries", faced life threatening jeopardy, and in the stumbling sergeant's case, death was only a whisker away.

Nevertheless, it is the lot of every policeman that he may be called upon to take a major decision and execute a course of action in a fraction of a second, the outcome of which will then be deliberated by much more learned men, over a much longer period of time, in greatest detail and with the assistance of the highest expertise available.

Whatever judgement will eventually be arrived at, these two persons will carry with them the memory of this day as a life long scar, and they will have to fight and be given every assistance to enable them to return to their families, their job and life in general with as much balance and normality as possible.

There could be a few lessons to be learned from this sad story. The first is that our forces of law and order need to have sufficient budgetary provisioning at the forthcoming national budget, including adequate remuneration that compensates for the risks they face, to enable the Police Force to cope with the rapidly increasing pressures that seem to be taking a toll on the men in blue.

New equipment such as stun guns and "zappers" need to be introduced. Such equipment could have given the Qormi incident a different outcome while securing the peace.

Also possibly new structures for the force need to be considered, on the model of current international developments in policing, if the police force is to continue to manage to recruit "the best" that it needs to attract to this vocation.