Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/292371
News JAMES J. PISCOPO A police station is to be opened and become fully functional in Swieqi by the end of this month, MaltaTo- day is informed. A spokesperson for the Home Affairs Ministry has confirmed the news and said that only a few things remained pending prior to the station's opening, mainly re- lated to the installation of IT in- frastructure. The Swieqi local council and res- idents of nearby Ibraġ and Madl- iena have been calling for the set up of a permanent police station and regular patrols for months, af- ter residents had to put up with a series of vandalism attacks. The most recent act of vandal- ism occurred last weekend, when residents woke up to find their car tyres slashed. CCTV footage uploaded on Youtube by a resi- dent shows a hooded man walking slowly on the pavement before he stops, acts like he's going to col- lect something from the ground and slashes a tyre with a sharp object. He repeats the same act for the second tyre of the same vehicle and is seen walking away calmly, before looking around to ensure that his act went unnoticed. In a similar incident last year, around thirty cars were vandalised in the space of two days after they were sprayed with black paint. The cars were all parked in the streets closest to the Paceville area. MaltaToday is informed the po- lice station will be located in the new civic centre of the locality, which was inaugurated days before the last general election by former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. Asked about the opening hours and how many officers are expect- ed to run the station, the spokes- person said the operational struc- ture is still being defined at the moment. At present, Swieqi is the re- sponsibility of the St Julian's po- lice station. Apart from having its resources strained by Malta's clubbing hub Paceville, the same station also has to cater for the surrounding areas of Pembroke and Ibraġ as well. Swieqi residents become more restless towards the summer sea- son, as the locality hosts substan- tial numbers of foreign students who reside there. Two months ago, residents launched an online petition to raise awareness about the need for a stronger police presence, gather- ing more than 600 signatures in the process. jpiscopo@mediatoday.com.mt maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 APRIL 2014 Swieqi to have its own police station within weeks 30 cars were vandalised in 48 hours last year when they were sprayed with black paint Republic Street, Valletta next to the Courts