Rather than piling pressure on officers, the police force should boost their morale and give them incentives, the Labour Party spokesman on home affairs, Michael Falzon, said.

Dr Falzon, a member of Parliament, felt that assigning four of the recently-appointed sergeant majors to the internal affairs' office, whose duty it was to discipline officers, only served to demoralise the members of the corps. Acknowledging that exercising discipline was necessary, he said one should not overdo it and, instead, focus on the fight against crime.

He wondered why officers were being disciplined for taking sick leave, even when they were certified unwell by their doctors.

Officers had been disciplined hundreds of times because they had not dealt the public enough fines for littering, even though some of the officers' duties made this difficult, if not impossible, Dr Falzon said.

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