Gozo patrols led to closed police stations, home minister says
Members of the police force patrolling the streets are the reason why some police stations were found closed, Minister for Home Affairs Michael Farrugia said in Parliament yesterday.
Farrugia was responding to an issue raised by Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami after a report in Illum showed 12 out of 16 police stations in Gozo were found closed.
Fenech Adami said that police stations should be open and fully equipped, particularly because “Gozo has a big problem with drug trafficking and criminals continue to operate because police are missing from localities”.
During the debate on the budgetary estimates for the Ministry for Home affairs he also noted that there was no plan or direction in the budget for issues regarding national security.
Individuals felt that a refuge for their safety was lost when the police stations are closed, and this raised concerns amongst them. He went on to say that the government had given up on putting police on the streets, deciding instead to replace them with cameras all over the place.
Fenech Adami went on to accuse the government of “forgetting the security of our country” and “our fight against criminality”, also bringing up the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as an example of someone who spoke out against organised crime and investigated corruption, and was killed as a result of her work.
With 600 robberies in St Julian’s until the end of August this year alone, he insisted that criminality was rife. Noting that with 18 cases of thefts a day, a robbery took place every hour and a half.
“And the minister has the gall to say that we are always negative. Our reply is that we are on the right side, the side that wants to fight criminality. The budget does not even recognise our big problem with criminality.”
In response, Farrugia said that he was recycling his comments, pointing out that investment in the sector had grown by three times more than the capital investment five years ago. He then accused the Opposition of repeating that everyone is terrified to leave their homes, even though crime statistics show that overall crime has been on a steady decline over the years.
He reasoned that since a forensic lab was being built, and plans to have mini police headquarters around the country were underway – then this is a sign that the government was committed to fighting crime.
“We are working on a plan to ensure people are working and living in a secure country and we are fighting organised crime.”