In a court sentence handed down last Monday, the Civil Court ruled that a police order could not be used to regulate a business establishment. The court held that the Commissioner of Police, acting in his executive capacity, may not decide unilaterally to close down a commercial operation on its own initiative and without due process of law, and asserted that it is only the court that may close a shop, restaurant or other commercial premises.

A police superintendent was reported as having insisted with the judge during the hearing of the case that the police have the right, if they believe the provisions of a particular permit are being breached, to close down a commercial premises.

The court dismissed this argument and declared that the police should first obtain a court ruling that decides in the Commissioner’s favour, or in favour of the competent authorities, to close down any commercial premises or withhold it from holding an event. This decision in practice stops the police from taking the law into their own hands before the case is considered by a court of law.

It is incredible that this country has had to wait until the second decade of the third millennium before the hitherto practically absolute powers of the police started to be curbed.

We are still suffering the effects of the colonial imposition that sought to control the country through the executive powers of the Commissioner of Police.

Unfortunately, one still finds that we have not done away with the notion that a trading licence is not a right of the citizen but a concession of the powers that be.

Trading licences and conditions under which they are issued are theoretically no longer a police responsibility. There is the licensing unit in the Trade Department for most trading licences, while the Malta Tourism Authority takes care of hotels, hostels, restaurants, bars and – believe it or not – even village outlets where one can get a ħobża biż-żejt and a te’ bil-ħalib! The police should therefore have nothing to do with this set-up.

If one of these outlets is proving to be a nuisance to neighbours, the police should step in to try to calm down things and even to take legal steps if necessary, but the notion that the Commissioner of Police has the power – ex officio – to decide that the law has been broken and impose punishment by closing a licensed premises because of a neighbour’s complaint has no place in today’s society. The police, apparently, have still not got the idea that they are there to help the public and not to persecute people.

After the debacle with the way they interrogate suspects and their resistance to people under interrogation having the right of access to a lawyer, we have also recently found out that there has been a dramatic increase (from 869 in 2008 to 4,023 in 2009) in requests made by the Maltese police and secret service for telecom operators to provide data about the use of telecommunications infrastructure by private individuals.

This should be an alarming statistic to anyone who believes that citizens’ civil rights are supreme. Surely this increase indicates that the police are considering the process of obtaining such information as matter of course, when only exceptional circumstances should justify it.

This sum total of the way things are done by the police force belies an unofficial crass indifference to basic human rights when respect for these rights is today a sine qua non for any state department or agency.

If the interest of the police is at odds with the interest of the public, something is definitely wrong.

Assuming – in one fell swoop – the role of prosecutor by making accusations as well as that of judge by deciding on these accusations and meting out punishment can never be in the interest of the public.

The old Roman adage, ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes’ – who guards the guardsmen – immediately comes to mind. In Malta it seems it is only the courts that have this function as the other ‘tentacles’ of the state, such as the Attorney General’s office and the responsible ministry, do not seem to be interested in upsetting the applecart of the draconian powers that the police force has accumulated over the years.

The latest Civil Court decision is therefore of paramount significance.

• So Bank of Valletta has snubbed the chairman of the Malta Financial Services Authority by sticking to its offer to investors in the La Valette Property Fund.

After taking so long to finalise one report that concluded that BoV did not exactly do everything right, the regulator has meekly refused to react to this snub. This is also an instance where one can surmise that if the interest of the regulator is at odds with the interest of the public, something is definitely wrong.

To repeat a point made by a well known opinion writer, I am a little tired of people who think morals only come into play when sex and marriage are involved.

micfal@maltanet.net