Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1208901
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 FEBRUARY 2020 OPINION READING reports of revela- tions in the compilation of ev- idence against Yorgen Fenech who stands accused of conspiring to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia as well as on the evidence being given in the public inquiry into the same assassination leaves no doubt of one thing: the police set-up in Malta is more of a farce than of a force. No one seems to have been re- sponsible for anything. In the case of alleged money launder- ing in which senior figures in the administration were involved, no one felt obliged to take any ini- tiative and everybody just sat at their desk and waited for direc- tions from above. Passing the buck, instead of tak- ing action, is the slightest abuse that one can think of. Police mis- conduct involves much more as well. Of course, police misconduct and abuse is not peculiar to Malta. It is known all over the world and is the basis of many a Hollywood thriller. Corruption, coerced false confessions, intimidation, false arrests, false imprisonment, fal- sification of evidence, police per- jury, witness tampering, police brutality, unwarranted searches, selective enforcement and sexual misconduct all make good fodder for many a scriptwriter. Mario Philp Azzopardi's trilogy on the fictional 'Spettur Bonnici' – now being produced as a TV series – revolves around the no- tion of 'noble cause corruption', where a police officer believes that good outcomes justify illegal behaviour. A 2019 study in the journal Na- ture, based on research on the Los Angeles Police, found that misconduct by one police officer substantially increased the like- lihood that peer officers would also engage in misconduct. That means that "police misconduct spreads… like a contagion," ac- cording to Ojmarrh Mitchell, a criminologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The rot in our police force did not start when Joseph Muscat be- came Prime Minister in 2013, but under his government the rot was allowed to become an epidemic. In an opinion piece of mine published in this newspaper al- most two years ago ('Domine Di- rige Nos' – March 5, 2017) I had written that even under the pre- vious PN administration, the sit- uation inside the force was so bad that many serious police officers were actually looking forward to retirement as soon as they quali- fied for a pension. "Slowly but surely," I had writ- ten, "many valid police officers – most of them PN-leaning – who were disgusted with the way the force was administered left the force... leaving behind them a bevy of incompetent and/or rot- ten apples running the show. As it happened, many of these were Labour-leaning. This happened before the 2013 election that saw Muscat being elected to power with an unprecedented majority." This is also part of what led to the current, absurd situation. Apart from that, it seems that every police officer has amicable relationships with known busi- nessmen and/or known crim- inals. Their private goings-on were of no interest to the current Police Commissioner – unlike what used to happen with his predecessors. Familiarity breeds more than contempt and this hobnobbing is another factor that led to the mess that the po- lice force finds itself in today. In this context, it is worth re- calling the case of the former po- lice inspector Roderick Zammit and his brother, former inspector Daniel Zammit, sons of the for- mer acting police commission- er Ray Zammit. Daniel Zammit was 'boarded' out on psychiat- ric grounds while his brother, who was censured for unethi- cal behaviour and 'dubious' ties with businessmen, ended being 'boarded' out of the force on medical grounds. In Malta bad behaviour in the police force exists but no official is dismissed for bad behaviour: being 'boarded' out entitles the officer to a life pension. In cases of dismissal, the officer concerned is not entitled to any compensation. This is yet another factor that continues to lure people to the rotting apple. The fear of being dismissed is practically non-ex- istent, let alone the fear of action being taken in cases where the conduct of police officers is tan- tamount to a breach of criminal law. Today the police force needs a big shake-up. It needs to attract serious people to join its ranks. It cannot rely anymore on what is available within the force – those people are unable to infuse the seriousness and the commit- ment to duty that one expects from the police force. The rot has gone far too deep. In this scenario, the country's pending appointment of a new police commissioner is of an extraordinary importance. The person must recognise that he would have to build the police force practically from scratch – no easy job, of course. The PN might not agree with the method the Prime Minister has chosen to select the candi- date for the job. But it should not miss the opportunity to grill him or her in the Public Appoint- ments Committee (PAC) when the candidate should have pre- pared a realistic plan on how to build-up again a credible police force. The courage not to toe the line Republican Senator Mitt Rom- ney last Wednesday voted to remove US President Donald Trump from office on the charge of abuse of power, becoming the only Senator to cross party lines in the Senate's impeachment tri- al. In the political arena, one rare- ly encounters the courage to be honest when this means not toe- ing the party line. In a dramatic speech just two hours before the US Senate took its final votes on the impeach- ment articles, an emotional Romney invoked his faith as a key reason guiding him: "As a senator juror, I swore an oath before God to exercise impar- tial justice. I am profoundly reli- gious. My faith is at the heart of who I am," Romney said before getting choked up and taking a brief pause. He continued defending his decision: "I take an oath before God as enormously consequen- tial. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party, would be the most diffi- cult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong." He explained his decision in this way: "The grave question the Constitution tasked senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemean- our. Yes, he did. The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invad- ers. The president's purpose was personal and political." Today the police force needs a big shake-up. It needs to attrct serious people to join its ranks. It cannot rely anymore on what is available within the force Michael Falzon Police force... police farce micfal45@gmail.com Outgoing police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar and former assistant commissioner Silvio Valletta