The enemy within

Our police officers operate in a high-stakes environment, often dealing with stress, danger and complex situations. Their work involves navigating threatening circumstances and making split-second decisions that could mean the difference between life and death.

In 2025, our law enforcement officers continue facing significant challenges that further complicate their already demanding roles. These challenges include large workloads, staff shortages, difficulties in building community trust and a rise in cyber and cross-border crimes.

But perhaps the greatest challenge and scourge that our police corps continuously has to deal with is when corruption and the bad apples among the officers start gnawing at the integrity and trustworthiness of what is supposed to be a disciplined force.

Police corruption can threaten the security and stability of our state and lead to increased violence and crime. In its various forms, it can constitute a threat to national security, as bribery can facilitate terrorism and drugs through police collusion and can also reduce police effectiveness through kickbacks and embezzlement in procurement.

Police corruption can arise from abuse of public power for private gain and can also have damaging effects on individual lives. It can be transactional, that is to say, having to pay to get help from the police, or predatory, with lawbreakers paying to avoid trouble with the police.

Take, for example, the massive police overtime racket that was revealed in 2020. 32 police officers, some of whom were occupying senior positions within the corps, were arraigned in court and charged with abusing overtime facilities to rake in thousands of euros by way of unjustified enrichment.

In 2022, then, three police officers were charged with kidnapping and beating up foreign nationals, picking their victims at random and injuring one so badly that he lost consciousness.

Or the other case last year, when a magistrate blasted two police officers who gave a heavily embellished testimony about an altercation with a man in a kebab shop.

Following that serious case of police misconduct and criminal abuse, we had another shocking police malfeasance when it was revealed that a police sergeant had allegedly for a long time been leaking information about multiple upcoming police raids to suspected seasoned criminals.

Being an officer in the drug squad, she ostensibly took bribes in the course of her work as a public officer, revealing sensitive security information, being an accomplice to drug trafficking, money laundering and misuse of electronic equipment.

Following right on the heels of that incident, we had an even more shocking case of an elite police officer who was suspended after testing positive for cocaine and leaking sensitive information. He was an officer who provided security for some of Malta’s most high-profile figures. Furthermore, he was alleged to have ties to drug dealers.

Even in a democratic society like ours, human rights abuses, police brutality, police malfeasance, police corruption and criminality can still exist and hinder the credibility of the police when exposed. Weak accountability measures constitute the central cause of corruption. When police officers are investigated or punished for their misdeeds, as they have been in the cases mentioned above, police corruption can be reduced. In contrast, when police officers are not held accountable for malfeasance or other misbehaviour, then corruption intensifies.

Of course, despite cases where police malfeasance has been exposed and prosecuted, there may still be other cases that go undetected.

But bearing the narrow and political definitions of corruption in mind, police corruption and other misconduct and illicit activities can now be addressed. However, police deviance expands to further wrongful practices when officers evade acceptable norms, values, ethics, laws and standards without direct victimisation.

Rather than linearly thinking of police corruption as constituting bribery, personal advantage and minor perks, police officers can also abuse their position with the intent of departmental, rather than solely individual, gain.

The severity of police corruption may intensify over time during a police officer’s career, despite having started it with a clean slate and the best of intentions.

Nobody imagines police recruits joining in anticipation of deviant delights. Invariably they are motivated to abide by the law, are even idealistic, and may be even excellent officers before becoming bent. In short, a bad officer was a good one first, so what makes him ‘bad’?

One must delve into the predominant causes and activities of police corruption.

The underlying reasons behind police corruption are multifaceted. There are notable constant and variable factors. In relation to the constant factors, discretion can be exercised with licit and illicit cores, managerial absence of visibility, secrecy of managers preserving police culture even if corruption-prone, low salary and status issues, and affiliation with criminals that hinder the performance of police duties.

These factors clearly emerge from statistics and information regarding the 23 police officers found guilty of criminal offences since 2017.

How then does our ‘clean’ recruit react when he encounters such malpractices? Newcomers soon become aware of the clean and dirty zones and eventually succumb to the irresistible temptation of subscribing to such zones.

Criminality being their sworn enemy, our police, the majority of whom are honest, disciplined and well-meaning officers ready to sacrifice their lives in upholding the law and maintaining public order, will continue with their daily daunting task of fighting it with all possible legitimate means.

At the same time, however, they also have to deal with another, perhaps even more dangerous and unlikely enemy from within all of their ranks.