Good leadership is the key to the efficiency and morale of any disciplined force. I argued a few months ago in the wake of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia that the Commissioner of Police had lost the confidence of the country and should be replaced as soon as possible by a top foreign professional to restore belief in their competence and knock the Police Force into shape.
My proposal went down, on the whole, like a lead balloon and, although I have no reason to go back on what I said at the time, I must place clearly on the record my regard for the excellent work done by the Commissioner of Police and the investigative branch of the Malta Police Force in the last seven months in arraigning so quickly the suspected perpetrators of that horrific crime.
Moreover, the recent dreadful incident involving PC Simon Schembri in a lawless act of hit and run by a Maltese teenage driver, has brought home starkly the role many good policemen perform in the line of duty in this increasingly ill-disciplined society.
Nevertheless, my concerns about deficiencies in senior police leadership talent and the need for a sustained rebuilding of the Malta Police Force remain.
Of all the major arms of the State, the Malta Police Force is probably the weakest. The last 45 years of its history have been marked by constant political interference, some dark episodes of politically motivated violence and periodic failed attempts at reorganisation and revival with a resultant lack of stability, a gradual lowering of morale and a culture of mediocrity of performance and leadership.
The government’s announcement about four years ago of “a study and implementation of a reorganisation process on different levels of the Police Corps” (whatever this may mean) has not produced any discernible improvements. The establishment of the so-called Academy for Disciplined Forces and the widespread rank inflation at the top of the force have caught the public eye, but confidence in police leadership and morale remains low.
Not for the first time in recent years, the quality of leadership of the Police Force has been thrown into question. The fault for this must lie fairly and squarely at the feet of the politicians of successive administrations who made their selections based not on the quality and experience of the individuals concerned, but on their political allegiance.
For as long as I have known the Police Force during my time as adviser on the AFM in the Prime Minister’s office from 1996 to 1999 and adviser on irregular immigration at Home Affairs from 2005 to 2013, the quality of leadership has been mostly indifferent. It wasn’t that the commissioners themselves weren’t good people. It was that they simply had not been taught how to exercise leadership. Command and control was cumbersome and over-centralised. The art of supervised delegation was unknown.
The Police Force is riddled with cliques, thus undermining the chain of command. It is also grossly over-ranked
The officer corps of the Police Force is riddled with cliques, thus undermining the chain of command. It is also grossly over-ranked. The joke that the Police Force has more deputy commissioners than the much larger Metropolitan Police Force in London is worth repeating. There are some quality policemen in the force, but they are stymied by poor man-management and an intrinsically weak organisation.
Promotion in the force is almost invariably achieved by progression through the ranks. There is a strong case for arguing that a universal system of direct entry to the officer ranks should be considered as a way of breaking the current dead wood log-jam, raising quality and creating an officer class trained to take early leadership responsibility, as happens in the AFM. The introduction of the police inspector cadets scheme is a well-kept secret. I have been unable to obtain any information about its performance.
There is also an overriding case for fast-stream members of the force to attend foreign staff colleges and secondments to police forces abroad to broaden their experience, to learn the latest methods of policing and to prepare them for future leadership roles.
Training at all levels of the force leaves much to be desired. The officious and brusque manner shown when dealing with members of the public is a mark of poor training. There have been several reports where individual police officers have overreacted and brought embarrassment on their uniform.
Hate crime towards vulnerable minority groups is neither recorded nor, I suspect, acknowledged as an offence. The ability to handle such situations with tact and self-control should form an intrinsic part of good police training.
The standard of basic training at the academy in Mqabba is crucial to the final quality of the officer on the beat. Continuation training development after basic recruit training should be considerably stepped up to ensure that the professionalism of police officers is improved.
The operational effectiveness of the Police Force is derived from a combination of factors. These include professional competence, good organisation, operational intelligence especially in the war on drugs and the battle with corruption, adequate manpower resources, up-to-date equipment and effective leadership. In all these areas there is a sense that the Police Force has some way to go.
I do not believe that lack of resources is the core issue. The challenge lies in achieving increased efficiency through outstanding leadership, excellent training and better utilisation of resources. The deployment of the force in police districts around the island needs radical re-examination to ensure resources are placed where they are most effective, not simply where they have always been before.
The organisation and command and control of the force needs reconsideration so that there is a greater presence where it is most needed. An organisation whose manpower will always be tight needs to prioritise its tasks to maintain public order and to deal with the crying need for police on the roads to control Malta’s reckless drivers.
The Police Force has a vital role to play. There is a long-standing, crucial requirement to restore citizens’ confidence in the leadership and operational effectiveness of the force. A radical shake-up of the Police Force is imperative. But for this to succeed there must be the political will – by both major political parties – to make it happen in a non-partisan manner.