Address: Police Headquarters, St. Calcedonius Square, Floriana FRN 1530
Telephone: +365 2122 4001
Website: https://pulizija.gov.mt
Email: victimsupport.police@gov.mt Email: gbdv.police@gov.mt
The Malta Police Force (MPF) is legally bound to act upon the receipt of any information, report, or complaint, collect evidence and bring offenders before a judicial authority (the Court).
District Police
There are presently over 2,000 members of the Force, including district police officers. These officers are generally assigned community-policing duties and are usually the first responding officers who receive information and complaints about cognisable offences. After taking the initial report, the district police will conduct preliminary investigations, and depending on the severity of the case, this will then be referred to a more specialised police branch for further investigations.
The Gender-Based and Domestic Violence Unit
The Gender Based and Domestic Violence Unit (GBDVU) was created in October 2020, in line with the mission statement of the Malta Police Force: “to provide a professional and trusted policing service to ensure safety and security in partnership with the community, with the vision for the community to trust us in ensuring a safe and secure society for everyone.”
The priorities of the police service in responding to domestic violence are as follows:
- To protect the lives of both adults and children who are at risk because of domestic violence.
- To investigate all reports of domestic violence.
- To take immediate and effective action against offenders so that they can be held accountable through the criminal justice system.
- To develop crisis intervention teams of specially trained officers to respond accordingly to domestic violence situations.
- To achieve one of the three desired outcomes of the Transformation Strategy, that is to “increase trust, confidence, legitimacy, and responsiveness externally from the perspective of the community.
In ALL cases of emergency, the 112 number is to be dialled immediately. Any information and queries can be addressed with the GBDV Unit by dialling 2294 2717 / 2294 2777. In all other non-emergency circumstances, a domestic violence report is to be lodged by physical reporting at the Domestic Violence Unit in Floriana.
The Vice Squad
The role of the Police Vice Squad is to investigate cases of child abuse, abuse on the elderly and persons with disabilities, online hate speech, rapes and all other serious sexual offences, including human trafficking. Other areas related to this unit are reports of missing persons, prostitution, online child pornography and non and illegal gambling.
Although the first point of contact for victims of serious sexual offences is usually a police station, the district Inspector is bound to call the duty officer at Vice Squad for assistance and the latter will take the leading role in any subsequent investigations. This procedure also applies in the case of sexual abuse offences involving minors that are first received at district level.
The Vice Squad works in collaboration with Aġenzija Appoġġ, Child Protection Services (CPS), the Victim Support Agency, the Education Department and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that provide any form of support of support services to victims.
