Police Commissioner Laurence Cutajar on Sunday hailed 2017 “a year of success”, insisting the force had received praise for its work from all over the world.

In a speech during the force’s annual award-giving ceremony, Mr Cutajar said that last year was a very “particular and unique” year, pointing to the EU presidency and June’s snap election as two events that required great effort by the police.

Referring to comments by the public that the police were demoralised, Mr Cutajar said this was unfair on the officers who worked so hard to ensure people’s safety, insisting that the police were far from demoralised.

“A year and a half ago, when I was appointed acting commissioner, I swore to make every officer happy on the job.

“I can say that most police officers benefited from this promise,” Mr Cutajar said, passionately insisting that never had the police enjoyed better conditions.

In the 40 years since he joined the force, the Commissioner went on, he had never seen so many people being taken to court for murders or car bomb cases, or so many pickpocket cases being solved.

Asked by the Times of Malta for his reaction following reports that three officers were caught with cocaine while off-duty as well as for comments on the resignation of Assistant Commissioner Mario Tonna in the wake of alleged domestic violence, Mr Cutajar said having members of the force involved in such incidents was “not a good thing”.

“At the same time we showed that this is how things should be investigated and I feel that this was a success for us. This shows that we investigate anything that is criminal without making any distinctions,” Mr Cutajar said.

He said it was Mr Tonna's decision to resign from the police force. The allegations about him would continue to be investigated like every similar case, with court action if required.

On the recruitment of police officers with a criminal record, which became possible after the rules were changed when Labour was returned to power in 2013, Mr Cutajar said that during recruitment every new member is investigated on an “individual case”.

“There have been two recruitment drives since I became Commissioner and I can say that there were a lot of people with a criminal record who were not accepted.

“On this, I can say with a clear conscience that those who have a serious criminal record are not accepted into the police force,” Mr Cutajar said.

During the ceremony, Saviour Chircop, was declared officer of the year for having while off duty disarmed a knife-wielding man. 

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.