Many understandably argue that the police have a low appetite for enforcing the law when serious crimes like corruption and money laundering are involved but are prompt to drag people to court on alleged criminal offences like a trivial quarrel between neighbours. Courts are criticised for the delays in passing judgment as the backlog of cases persists despite various attempts to appoint new judges and magistrates and the escalation of court fees to discourage unnecessary litigation.
The Gozo police were recently given some harsh advice, if not an outright warning, to do their homework well before dragging people to court on petty issues. When hearing a case involving two Gozitan residents, Magistrate Joe Mifsud expressed his concern at what he described as a growing practice by the police in Gozo to press charges without first investigating further, leaving it up to the court to decide on the merit.
The court was rightly worried about an apparent attitude by officers to simply pass the buck rather than first investigating to establish, at least prima facie, whether what was being alleged could have happened.
Magistrate Mifsud went further and argued that the court would not be a party to “stupid and scandalous piques by people who expect to dictate what happened in court”. The police and lawyers had a duty not to allow the courts to end up as a “forum for the cultivation of rivalry”, he remarked.
The reaction of the police to this harsh criticism by a magistrate, who is known for his outspoken comments, is still not known. Whether this attitude is indeed the result of a passing-the-buck mindset within the police force or a consequence of a severe shortage of resources for law enforcement is still a moot point.
The frontline police officers are generally considered as dedicated people in the service of the community. They naturally follow the direction given by their superiors and any shortcomings and failures in enforcing the law in severe cases of alleged abuses cannot be attributed to middle- and low-ranking police officers.
The long time it takes for the court to decide certain cases is an endemic problem. A string of ministers responsible for the administration of justice have come and gone leaving a long list of promises, reports and strategies on how the legal system can be made more efficient. It is debatable whether the wasted efforts were the result of ministerial incompetence on how to re-engineer the legal processes or, more seriously, a latent political unwillingness to prioritise a shake-up of the system that would upset too many interested parties.
Few deny that we are a litigious nation. Many prefer to go to court on civil and commercial issues to safeguard what they perceive to be their rights rather than try to reach an amicable settlement of submitting their case to arbitration. The police are often dragged into disputes that are evidently of a civil nature but one or more of the interested parties allege criminal offences.
For the situation to improve so the court can function more efficiently, the police certainly need to define their priorities on a regular basis. Of course, law enforcement in the case of major criminal offences like money laundering, corruption, fraud, theft and family violence should be given the highest priority.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial