Abolishing an existing police academy and replacing it with one centralised academy serving recruits from different corps would be a mistake, the Malta Police Association has said. 

Army, police, civil protection and a correctional facility officers all had distinct technical, tactical, legal and operational needs, the MPA said, and overlap would be so minimal that there was "no justification" for creating one centralised academy. 

Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela wants one unified training academy.

The MPA position comes after Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela told parliament last month that training for Malta's four disciplined services would be merged.

Mr Abela said that restructuring the police academy into an 'Academy for Disciplined Forces' made sense as disciplined forces often had to work with one another. 

But although the MPA agreed that the existing police academy was in need of a revamp to turn it into a professional, accredited training institution, it said that merging academies would be a mistake. 

"From an educational perspective, the four corps' requirements are so distinct that it might not be possible to establish a common educational framework," the MPA argued. 

The MPA also noted that while the draft law made mention of a 'Commander' who would lead the restructured academy, it did not say which of the four disciplined forces the commander would come from. 

It argued that the new academy's role should go beyond that of mere training, and should instead be focused on "creating an academic strategy and educational programmes, ensuring training standards and providing and coordinating training services for the various disciplined forces' own academies, which could be opened up for shared use."  

The MPA encouraged the government to continue investing in infrastructure, technology and human resources to ensure the eventual academy would be of the highest possible standards.