The police presence on our public transport

In September the Malta Public Transport and the Malta Police Force signed a collaboration agreement with the aim to improve public safety and security on public transport through an increase in police presence

The idea behind it was to not only facilitate an increase of police presence on our buses but also to offer incentives that strengthen the use of public transport as an environmentally-friendly means of travel. Undoubtedly, this was a very innovative and welcome development with full credit to the Commissioner, Angelo Gafa’.

Crimes cannot be properly explained, nor effectively prevented, without a thorough understanding of the environments in which they occur. Nowhere is this more apparent than in urban public transport. Save for a few alternative modes of commute, public transport here is provided entirely by buses and ferries. Crime in public transport covers a bewildering variety of offences. The targets of crime can be the system itself (as in vandalism or fare evasion), employees (as in assaults on bus drivers or inspectors) or passengers (as in pickpocketing or sexual harassment). A distinction must be made between crimes facilitated by overcrowding and by lack of supervision. Both can plague our public transport system, which could be because of too little space for passengers at busy periods and not enough staff to supervise buses and facilities at other times. There can be more than one effective measure to deal with specific crimes. Generally, crime can be “designed out” of our public transport system and order maintenance may be an effective transit policing strategy.

By any standard, we cannot really assert that we have a serious problem of crime in the public transport system in Malta. But guided by crime opportunity theory, one can undertake an eventual assessment of any problem consisting of a systematic observation of public transport in our country and focus group discussions with passengers, bus operators, police and bus company owners/managers. The scope would be to identify the main forms of crime and disorder afflicting the system, to identify features of the system that contribute to the commission of crime and disorder and to identify preventive measures, consistent with international experience. Situational crime prevention measures could take the form of measures relating to the operations of the bus system as a whole, intended to help to create a more orderly and secure transport environment and, more specific measures, designed to reduce opportunities for crimes occurring on buses or at bus stops, such as pickpocketing, disorderly behaviour and sexual harassment.

Normally, passengers making use of the public transport system have to experience three main stages, arriving at a terminal or a bus stop in order to board a bus, boarding a bus and travelling. An analysis of the external environment surrounding the bus stops and bus terminals and the internal environment of buses can identify the conditions that facilitate the commission of crimes against public transport users or result in users feeling unsafe. While bus stops are supposed to provide a comfortable shelter for passengers waiting for the bus, few really meet minimum standards. The floor is often unpaved and strewn with litter and the structure is covered in graffiti. Crude, hand-written notices advertising various goods and services are pasted everywhere. Lighting is absent or inadequate. The locations of the stops are characterised by intense pedestrian activity, disorder and incivility. Beggars, suspicious individuals and vagrants are frequently present. Bus stops are frequently overcrowded, particularly during the commute, which can result in passengers pushing each other out of the way aggressively or carelessly. Overcrowding also provides the opportunity for thieves and sexually motivated offenders and it is a particular source of anxiety for women and foreign migrant workers who are the largest group of bus users.

Police presence in and around bus stops has always been nonexistent or insufficient. At almost half the bus stops I have frequently observed no police officers or police patrols were present, which facilitates crime. I have often experienced on some buses the playing of loud and suggestive music, especially by young bus drivers, graffiti inside the buses (sometimes obscene), polarized windscreens and window glass and interior advertisements that impair visibility. Excessive numbers of unauthorised stops along certain bus routes result in buses being driven at high speed to make up for time lost in the frenzy to finish the trip on the scheduled time. In addition, there are the occasional drivers who are rude to passengers. All of these problems affect passengers’ security and create conditions for the occurrence of crimes inside the buses. Verbal abuse, theft and sexual abuse are the most common types of crimes occurring inside buses.

Our public transportation is often portrayed as a chaotic environment in which drivers’ and passengers’ behaviours are dictated by a particular subculture, where otherwise reprehensible actions are justified, tolerated and even expected. Aggressive boarding and exiting, where the strongest passengers elbow and push-away the weakest (women, children and the elderly), rude and vulgar remarks by drivers, verbal altercations between drivers and passengers that ultimately result in aggressive driving or skipping stops are common scenes.

However dangerous bus stops may be, the most vulnerable location may be said to be inside the bus and most crime accounts involved incidents that took place inside buses. Females and elderly passengers can be the most vulnerable victims. The most frequent targets of theft are cash, jewellery and mobile telephones. Crimes are committed by a variety of offenders. Many laws and regulations govern the bus system in Malta, but laws and regulations are not enough on their own to ensure compliance – they also have to be enforced and this is where the police can give a helping hand.