Police in the St Julian’s district, which includes the Paceville trouble spot, are stretched so thin they have very little time to investigate the flood of reports that come in every day.

About 6,000 reports have already been filed this year in the district – an increase of about 1,000 over the first eight months of 2013 – but just two policemen are assigned to investigations and patrol, sources told Times of Malta.

“It has become a normal occurrence to have queues of people waiting to file a report, even at 5am,” one police source said on condition of anonymity.

The St Julian’s district also includes San Ġwann, Swieqi and Pembroke. Over the past five years it has recorded the highest number of burglaries from occupied residences as well as the highest number of armed robberies, muggings, pick-pocketing cases and ‘snatch and grab’ cases. Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia tabled the figures in Parliament last November.

On paper, each shift at the St Julian’s police station is made up of 12 policemen, but most of the time it is manned by just four officers, sources said. The reason is that district police have to provide security at fixed points and for other events such as village feasts and sports activities.

As a result just two policemen are being assigned to investigations and patrol, with the remaining two taking care of phone calls and the filing of new cases.

The sources also complain of inadequate facilities: “Somebody filing a report on sexual abuse or domestic violence can be overheard by somebody else sitting just two metres away filing a report on a much less serious case like a lost mobile phone,” one officer said.

“To add insult to injury we have been recently chided for issuing fewer tickets on traffic contraventions, littering and other minor offences. But this is testament to the fact that the higher echelons of the police force seem to be totally oblivious to the situation on the ground where we are having little time to do patrols.”

While acknowledging that maintaining law and order in St Julian’s has always been very challenging, sources said that since the change in government the number of officers on each shift had been cut from 15 to 12, across all ranks.

He said that a case in point was the decision to reduce the number of inspectors from four to two, and it was only recently that a third one was assigned.

The higher echelons of the police seem to be totally oblivious

The same sources noted that the opening of the Swieqi police station was a positive move, albeit a small one, as it was being run by two part-time policemen for a limited number of hours per week.

They said that from an already small complement, district police had to cover a number of fixed points such as the Libyan School in Ta’ Giorni and the Russian embassy in Kappara on a 24-hour basis. Other duties assigned include the closure of roads during school hours and manning busy traffic junctions during the rush hour.

In addition there were circumstances in which district police were called to guard Libyan patients at Mater Dei or assigned to particular events such as village feasts, water polo games and football matches.

A Home Affairs Ministry spokeswoman denied fewer policemen were being deployed in St Julian’s district, saying that since last year the complement had increased from 52 to 63. In the coming weeks a new mobile police station would be opened in Paceville.

“This would enable the public to file a report without the need to go down to the St Julian’s,” she said. Another mobile station is earmarked for Marsascala.

However, faced with what they insist is a staff shortage, sources questioned the decision to keep members of the force assigned to duties unrelated to investigations or law enforcement.

“Having members of the force assigned to maintenance works, repairing car punctures, storekeeping or making tea and coffee does not make sense as it would be more worthwhile assigning them to carry out normal police duties.”

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.