The Home Affairs Ministry is being accused of “decapitating” experienced police officers and replacing them with party loyalists in a “useless massacre” of the unit responsible for stemming hunting illegalities.
More officers have come forward to claim that the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit (ALE) has been stripped of its experience in handling wildlife crime.
According to sources, eight of its experienced officers have been transferred to district police stations – half of them had more than a decade of experience in the field and were all Nationalist supporters, except for one who is part of the President’s security entourage.
Senior police officers told The Sunday Times of Malta this was not the right way forward for effective law enforcement.
“The formula mastered by the Home Affairs Ministry will lead to disaster in the medium and long-term, which will damage the ALE, the police force and the country,” one source said.
The move is considered to be a blow to the unit as wildlife crime requires specific training and experience to be effective.
Yet the officers said there was an indication these changes would occur if Labour was elected.
“What is happening to environmental enforcement was written on the wall,” the source said.
The ministry has defended the moves, saying the police corps is a dynamic force that requires officers to “rotate through different sections” from time to time.
“This is because there is always need for ongoing training and people who can acquire all the necessary experience,” the ministry said, adding that the unit was managed by officers who give the necessary training to its members.
What is happening to environmental enforcement was written on the wall
The ministry also said the number of officers in the ALE has been increased “to reflect the exigencies of the open hunting season”.
However, this happens during every season when district police join ALE officers to monitor illegal hunting.
The law enforcement officers who spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta said good human resources practices demanded that the rotation of police officers in different units should take place over a longer period of time.
They said that during the first years in a new unit, an officer was mentored by a more experienced officer and it took a couple of years to adjust to a specialised area of policing such as the environment.
Too many inexperienced officers effectively weakened the unit.
The officers said they were saddened by media reports about the inactivity of the government and its agencies on environmental law enforcement.
They spoke of a decade of work and training to build a police unit that was credible while struggling to build assets for effective law enforcement on land and at sea.
Progress was “slow but steady” and the ALE had earned a name for itself both in Malta and abroad.
The unit gained the respect of environmental NGOs, which had donated sea vessels, outboard engines and monitoring equipment to the unit.
Since Labour returned to power in 2013, spring hunting regulations have been relaxed and trapping reintroduced in spite of EU regulations.
The Wild Birds Regulation Unit was set up under Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights Roderick Galdes to “ensure that the sustainable traditional socio-cultural practices of hunting and trapping in Malta have a future”.
The unit includes among its four staff Joseph Lia, a former council member of the Hunters Federation (FKNK), and his brother Richard Lia.