No spike in crime in Gozo as senior police officer cautions against moral panic

Gozo has not experienced a spike in crime, a senior police officer has told a parliamentary committee as he cautioned MPs against fostering moral panic.

Assistant Commissioner Keneth Haber, who is also acting deputy police commissioner, said statistics for Gozo do not support the impression that crime on the island has increased in an alarming way.

He was responding to questions put to him by members of parliament’s Gozo Committee, composed of Gozitan MPs from both sides of the House.

“We are not seeing crime trends that are out of this world,” Haber said, adding that the situation in Gozo was better than in Malta. Specifically, on theft, which has been a particular bone of contention over the past weeks, Haber said theft was on the decline.

He also said that the police force’s complement in Gozo stood at 121 officers, which meant that the per capita rate was higher in Gozo when compared to Malta.

The Gozo Committee is chaired by Active Ageing Minister Jo-Etienne Abela and has as its members, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, Labour backbencher Abigail Camilleri and Nationalist MPs Alex Borg and Claudette Buttigieg.

Criminologist Saviour Formosa, who was also invited to address the committee, said statistics showed the Maltese islands as a whole were safer when compared to the European average, and Gozo was even safer than Malta.

Malta’s crime rate was 28 per 1,000 people while Gozo’s stood at 24 per 1,000.

Formosa cautioned against creating moral panic around micro incidents that made them seem as if they became the norm. “Every crime has its victims but it does not mean that because a particular crime has created a public reaction it has suddenly become the norm,” Formosa said.

He said theft crimes dropped by 13%. “In Gozo, theft from homes decreased but it increased in other locations such as hotels, restaurants and bars as a result of more tourists and increased business activity, which creates opportunities for crime,” Formosa explained.

In a tit-for-tat, Labour MP Abigail Camilleri hit out at Nationalist MP Alex Borg, accusing him of blowing out of proportion individual crimes to make them seem as if they have become the norm in Gozo.

“It is unjust for the Opposition to create moral panic, putting Gozo in a bad light and make it seem as if some localities are no-go areas,” she said. “I was in Marsalforn several times this summer to eat and I saw elderly people sitting on the benches, families eating out and never witnessed anything bad.”

Borg hit back saying the feedback he received from constituents was not a perception. The PN MP has on several occasions raised the issue of faltering security in Gozo and rising crime by resorting to social media. Earlier this year, he said Gozitans were feeling unsafe in their own homes.

Meanwhile, statistics tabled in parliament by Justice Minister Jonathan Attard in reply to a question by Alex Borg showed that until September, 461 criminal cases reached the Gozitan courts. The number of people charged stood at 473 of which 116 were foreigners.

Over the past five years, the highest number of criminal cases filed in court was in 2020 when police filed charges in 792 cases involving 870 individuals. Of these, 189 were foreigners.