Apparently desperately keen to swell its ranks with new recruits, the police force has implemented a new policy allowing those applying to join the force an unprecedented three chances to pass the entry exam.
The new policy only came to the fore by coincidence last year when one of the ‘third-time lucky’ recruits was arrested and charged with kidnapping and brutally beating immigrants.
Interior Minister Byron Camilleri told Parliament this week that the new policy had been approved by Malta Authority for Further and Higher Education and the Police Academy’s Board. The latter is chaired by University Professor and former Labour Party election candidate Raymond Mangion.
So far, 182 new police officers have been recruited following one resit and another five following a second resit, Camilleri informed Opposition MP Ivan Bartolo.
The new third resit policy was introduced on the watch of Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa, in what is being considered a further lowering of standards in a bid to fill the void left by experienced officers who have quit the force in droves over recent years.
Following last October’s arraignment of a 20-year-old police officer from Qormi, Luca Brincat, it resulted that he was one of five officers who had failed his exams, resit included.
But when Police Minister Byron Camilleri was accused of political interference in ensuring Brincat was made a constable, he vehemently denied the allegation and explained Brincat had been given another chance after his two previous failed attempts.
Police recruits only require a few O-Levels or a secondary school leaving certificate to be recruited. They are then given a short course at the Police Academy followed by a relatively easy exam, after which they are awarded a constable certificate.
A former Labour Party candidate and academic presiding a board, Police Constables who just past the test at the third resit, given a short time training that concludes with an easy exam and then let on the beat to work as a Police Officer.
If it wouldn’t be that serious, it would look like a reality remake of the American ‘Police Academy’ series.
Well, some may not be that good in theory but excel better in practice and learn the way they do their job, but the basics of theory have to be learnt. On the other hand, when reflecting on some articles in the media where former Police Officers have been telling their experiences while serving in the Police and by what they have told, it isn’t surprising why they have quit the service. The stories ranging from bullying to partisan interference and have been subject of articles in the Maltese media from time to time.
No matter where one is looking, what the article is about, it always falls back on the ‘special way’ of governance by the PL. Seems to me that the downwards trend in standards is to continue. Well, a certain majority of the electorate that cast their vote, voted for ‘Continuity’ and this is what they get. Those who didn’t vote PL, have to endure all that too.
So one can imagine the quality of our new recruits in the police force. Tal-biża kull fejn wiehed jisma, jara u jmiss b’idejh.
Ara tigiex bzonnhom halli tara l fares li jaghmlu!
Perhaps Gafà will arrange for future bank-robbers to provide three warning shots over the heads of these new recruits.
What does it matter as long as the constables have enough tattoos and sporty uniforms?
don’t forget that the current Director of Studies at the Academy is Andy Ellul’s brother. He’s the same person who encouraged labour supporters to pelt PN MPs on their return to Parliament after last March’s election. All of this shoddiness is allowed to happen on his watch. He’s a pro at this, having been a police forensic expert during the 80s infamous frame-up era. As for the other village clown, the Profs in question had recent internal disciplinary proceedings at university for sexual harassment of students in the law course. The Academy has become a joke, and Byron is the Clown-in-Chief.
Is this Profs Mangion the one who presents himself on TV from time to time, with a very dirty look indeed (in the very sense of it), and with his ill fashioned jackets full of dandruff? Fil-qosor, professur b’look nkallat!
These are new recruits with and for what. By who. Turning their the face the other way round in case of accidents.
May I suggest that, to start with, the education authorities set up a modern equivalent of the old-time ‘Skola ta’ bil-lejl’ for would-be police officers – ‘specializing’ in the traditional Three R’s and orientated towards the syllabus for the entrance examination into the Force.
Hopefully, this could produce a fairly fertile crop of, at least, half-educated constables who can adapt to the everyday needs of the ordinary citizens when these seek their assistance.
It seems that even this elementary requirement is sometimes miserably lacking nowadays.