Striving for the improbable through transformative means : morphing the Malta Police Force

Abstract

Terms as transformation, reform and change posit very difficult paths towards structural renewal. Such is highly evident in traversing the narrow, gravelly paths taken in the process to transform the Malta Police Force (MPF) into a dynamic, modern, proactive and community‑centric exercise. Guided by an enterprise to push the improbable into a realistic doable endeavour has only been made possible through a focus towards a long‑term structural change process, one that is cognizant of a past anchored in deeply entrenched practices. The latter pertain to an ingrained police culture characterised by bureaucratic traditional practices a top‑heavy structure, failure to implement past reform attempts, routine crisis management and reactivity that was steadily approaching a gridlocked functionality. Old entities are reluctant to change and MPF is not an exception. However, change overcomes those that lag. Two separate reviews of the operations of the MPF carried out in 1996 (MSU Ltd., 1997) and 2015 (Formosa, 2015) respectively highlighted a conservative mentality, encumbered by an internal fear of change as opposed to a proactive approach.