Police denied proper sentry box weather protection

Unlike Armed Forces personnel, police officers who serve protection duties on fixed points and exposed to harsh weather conditions are being denied a door that opens and closes in the sentry boxes available.

Sentry boxes are normally found outside embassies or residences of high profile government officials.

"Most of the time, Armed Forces personnel benefit from such cover to combat the elements while police officers serving on fixed points remain exposed to severe weather conditions," Labour MP Leo Brincat told Parliament during a sitting late last week.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said that "the aim of police officers on duty in fixed points is to prevent hazardous situations from occurring that may be of detriment to the person/s the police are protecting.

"The sentry boxes aren't there to protect the officers from the elements. The boxes are there for the police officers to place their personal belongings and not to actually stay in during protection duties. And this is for the proper protection of the VIPs concerned.

"As a result, protection duty officers are having their shifts provided into four-hour ones to make life a bit easier for the police officers serving such duties," Mifsud Bonnici added.