Swieqi braces itself for summer escalation in vandalism

It's the busiest district for the police, and the summer heat just seems to make it worse. But the reported demoralisation of officers at the St Julian's police station and the less-than-adequate response time has residents in Swieqi worried as summer sets in.

The Swieqi local council sounded a warning earlier this week after some 30-odd cars were found to have been vandalised over a short number of days. Things will get worse as the traffic of weekend revellers and language students in the area become the order of the day. And night.

Swieqi deputy mayor Justin Fenech is adamant to see that his town gets a police station and a regular beat, saying residents are at the end of their tether due to incidents of wanton vandalism to private property and street-fighting during the early hours of the night.

"There is a natural overspill from Paceville where revellers pass through Swieqi to park their cars or walk home through the town. The fact that they are in a residential area does not mean they change their behaviour as they walk back from a night of partying," Fenech said.

The council has held a bi-monthly working group with residents and the police force, and Fenech says their proposal for a police station has the support of all three parties. "We now expect that the government stands by this pledge."

Fenech said the rate of incidents in the town of 8,000 was not being exaggerated by the council. "Every weekend, we fear waking up in the morning to some new damage. We've seen cars being reversed into the back of a house, rubbish and other unsavoury debris being left out in the street, not to mention fights in the street and people causing damage to our cars as they walk through the streets."

The mix of alcohol and summer fun makes matters worse, as Fenech says that the influx of English language-students within the next weeks will escalate the situation. "People from Paceville and language students just party all the way through. We've had revellers jumping over cars. Unsupervised students living in self-catering apartments or hotels host parties before they go to Paceville, and even after they return. Dozens of them congregate out in the streets and all we see are two police officers ordering them to disperse, to no avail."

Fenech also says that the crime rate in an affluent area where the community is not as tight-knit as the traditional Maltese village, only makes the need for a police station even more urgent.

"The St Julian's police force is always very busy. Sometimes they don't even have a patrol car to dispatch to the scene of an incident. I am personally in favour of a neighbourhood watch, but what use is it if police have a response time of 20 minutes to come to the scene?

"We have a place available for a police station, and the Commissioner of Police is in favour of having a police station in Swieqi. We need it so that our community builds a rapport with the police force and to see them on the beat, so that they can help the police carry out their job."

Public order has been a problem for Swieqi for a number of years now. In 2011, former Swieqi councillor for Alternattiva Demokratika Arnold Cassola had called for a police station that is kept open on a 24-hour basis and serves the needs of over 10,000 residents living in Swieqi, Ibrag, St Andrew's and the Madliena area. He also said police had to carry out regular patrols. "It is absurd that with the hordes of people, minors included, roaming about the streets of this residential area at 3am and 4am screaming their hearts out and disturbing the public peace and trampling on the right to rest of the residents. Hosting of students in unsupervised residencies should be discouraged."