The Police Commissioner is not the Prime Minister’s subordinate, but head of a separate and distinct power
The Commissioner of Police
The Prime Minister
Given that Malta was a military base for so long, and has a massive civil service built by the British on its own model, and that countless thousands of Maltese people have gained their livelihood through working directly in this context, it is a complete mystery to me how so many in the present are literally unable to understand chains of command, hierarchies and reporting systems.
The chains of command I take for granted as obvious, like that cup of tea sitting on my desk, I find are a bewildering mystery to others who see what are plainly hierarchies, with an inherent and inviolable chain of command, as a mass of equals. They do not know who reports to whom, who stands where in the hierarchy or even that there is a hierarchy at all.
I can see from the ongoing discussions in the media and the internet comments boards that to very many people the Prime Minister = the Police Minister = the Commissioner of Police = the Prime Minister’s spokesman = the Police Minister’s driver (who is also a police constable).
They cannot even distinguish between ‘reporting to’ and ‘subordinate to’. It strikes me that even the protagonists in this sorry show cannot understand chains of command – which is beyond shocking – and that is partly why (the other reason is that there is almost certainly some unsavoury link between ‘L-Iskocciz’ and a couple of them) they have ended up creating this mess and compounding it with every day that passes.
Either that, or they are deliberately exploiting public ignorance of these matters.
So here goes.
The Police Minister reports to the Prime Minister and is subordinate to him.
The Commissioner of Police reports to the Prime Minister (not to the Police Minister) but is NOT subordinate to him. He reports to him only in the sense of keeping him briefed and informed, which he is obliged to do. The Police Commissioner heads a power that is separate and distinct from the government, and it is a major constitutional weakness that police commissioners are made and removed at the leisure and pleasure of the government. This has resulted in the constitutional absurdity that police commissioners are at once equal and separate to the prime minister but beholden to him for their survival. The situation since March 2013 has shown us that this anomaly is not only untenable, but it is also dangerous.
A minister of state’s driver reports to that minister of state and is subordinate to him.
When a minister of state’s driver is a policeman or a soldier, the overarching chain of command is that of the police corps or the army. This means that his ‘commanding officer’ is not the minister who he drives about, but the Commissioner of Police or the brigadier.
Whereas on a routine daily basis the police constable who serves as a minister’s driver reports to that minister in terms of where he should drive him that day, when exceptional circumstances come into play – like that shooting – the minister he drives is out of the equation and the police corps chain of command comes into play.
The constable reports directly to the Police Commissioner and is accountable to him. He addresses him as a subordinate (speaking only when spoken to and saying ‘sir’ at the end of every reply). The Commissioner of Police addresses him as he would any policeman who has become embroiled in something bad, asserts his authority over him, and summons him to be dealt with.
Meanwhile, the minister who has been driven around by that constable immediately stands back, ceding his ephemeral authority over the constable to the proper person – the Commissioner – while at the same time being fully aware that now his status has shifted from that of Police Minister to that of a person who has to be interviewed, if not actually interrogated, by the Police Commissioner.
The prime minister’s spokesman reports only to the prime minister. He has absolutely no authority to enter into discussions with the Commissioner of Police, and the Commissioner of Police is under no obligation to speak to him. He shouldn’t speak to him.
Any interaction the prime minister’s spokesman has with the Police Commissioner in a situation like this should be purely on a police-interview basis: the Police Commissioner summons the prime minister’s spokesman for a formal interview to see if knows anything that might be of interest in connection with this crime. The prime minister’s spokesman is then obliged to accede to the Police Commissioner’s request (though he has the right to keep silent).
I might have left something out. If this explanation is not as exhaustive as I would have liked it to be, please let me know. In essence, the only two people we should be looking at now are the Commissioner of Police and the Prime Minister. They are the respective heads of two separate and distinct powers: the government and the police.
While the behaviour of their subordinates – Manuel Mallia and Kurt Farrugia are the Prime Minister’s subordinates; Paul Sheehan is the Police Commissioner’s subordinate – might be fascinating to discuss, the only thing that matters is how the heads of those two powers handle the situation.
The buck stops at two people, not one: the head of the police and the head of the government. It does not stop at a minister of state, at a police constable or a political appointee to the PM’s secretariat.
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This state is fast reverting to the police state it was back in those dark days of the eighties, with the difference that those autocratic styles have now become passé.
In fact this scam of a government is also passé!
Thank you.
This is why, when the PM is directly involved in a cover-up and the Police are implicit in others, it is actually dangerous, within this context, to go to the Police and be directed by them as to to whom and how to lodge that report.
When the person you need to involve in your report is the PM then the situation, in this context, is very fragile.
The question is, was the PM aware of the bullets holes that night? If so, then he knew the DOI release was a lie.
If not, he’s got a big problem with the administration of his government.
Same goes for the commissioner. When did he become aware that there were holes in Sheehan’s story? One assumes it was close to immediately.
[Daphne – Even if the prime minister had been lied to about the shots, he would have known about the bullet-holes the same way we all did that night: by looking at the close-ups of them on Times of Malta’s video footage.]
Joseph Muscat knows exactly what he was doing, Kevin. It’s what he has always done professionally for Super One and the Labour Party – manufacturing a version of reality that suits his and their purpose.
Once a Super One reporter, always a Super One reporter. The trouble for the rest of us is that he’s now running the country – or supposed to be – while his puppeteers run him.
None of them should have gone to sleep that night before giving the correct version of events.
Instead, they thought that the public would believe their fairy-tale and forget about the incident by the next morning.
They thought that the public would be dreaming about the budget and Konrat Mizzi’s milestone schedule and his wonderful married life with a woman who lives as far away from him as possible.
But when they woke up, they found that the truth had spread like wildfire, so they had to smell the coffee.
ciccio, that’s right, none of them should have slept over it, and yet they did.
And they should not have been surprised the following morning and yet apparently were.
It’s like a make-it-up-as-you-go-along run government.
Maltastar on steroids.
There is nothing that excuses Joseph Muscat, short of a heart attack at the moment of learning of the shooting, which we know he didn’t have.
Joseph Muscat wants Simon Busuttil to shoulder political responsibility for HIS mess. M’ghadux isostni li jridu jibqa’ hemm. U d-dahka sarkastika qed titlaq minn fuq wiccu. That’s one small mercy for which we should be grateful.
Joseph Muscat has just lost the initiative. For the first time in his entire life, things aren’t going his way, and he’s having to react rather than determine events.
We are right now in a very small time window where Muscat’s adversaries have got inside his OODA/Boyd loop. That’s when interesting things happen.
Manuel Mallia should know a great deal about this, because he is a big fan of boxing. Muscat is trying to make up for it by flinging all manner of distractions in our faces until L-Istrina, when he can appear alongside a smiling Simon Busuttil and the nation will forget about this incident and move on.
I am not advising Busuttil, but if I were, I’d have one piece of advice, and one piece only: don’t appear on L-Istrina. Because if you do, at some point you’ll have to appear alongside Muscat, and smile and shake his hand. This is not the time for Maltese congeniality. Justice doesn’t take a break at Christmas.
Yes it’s about time politicos keep away from this mega charade.
The separation of powers under the Westminster system is a basic tenet of our democracy – though so few of the members of cabinet really understand it.
The police should be able to arrest the prime minister, without fear or favour, if he is suspected of having committed a crime, or to summon him or any of his ministers or party colleagues if they have information or are suspected of having information relating to a crime.
Can you imagine Commissioner Ray Zammit arresting Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Minister Manuel Mallia, or government head of communications Kurt Farrugia?
Exactly.
Exactly.
Between knowing what should be done and knowing what will, in reality, not be done doesn’t give one much cover for that report involving the PM.
I think the Police Commissioner has already submitted his resignation, and that it will be announced after the inquiry report is published.
But if all stick to their role and therefore keep their proper place, who will get invited to those famous, or should I say infamous, hanzirati?
The above is certainly the correct procedure but given the way Manuel Mallia always behaves, can we say that he is the real prime minister and not Joseph Muscat?
Or is the latter always keeping back on purpose so as to look as if he is anointed in oil?
[Daphne – The real prime minister is the one who fills the Constitutional role. All other talk about Manuel Mallia calling the shots and similar merely serves to take people’s eyes off the real problem here: the prime minister.]
Daphne,
You describe accurately the correct relationship that should exist between the Commissioner of Police, the Minister i/c of the police and the Prime Minister himself – but that has never been the real situation in Labour Party days from Mintoff to Muscat.
In practice the Commissioner of Police was expected to be a willing stooge, a puppet on a string manipulated by the Labour Prime Minister and forget all about the enforcement of laws without fear or favour.
That is why Commissioner of Police appointments take so long and why MLP Commissioners of Police do not last long (except for Lawrence Pullicino, who was eventually imprisoned for being an accomplice to murder carried out in at the police headquarters).
The more “change” that is promised by the Labour movement in its election manifesto the more things remain the same in their attitude to the police. They do not change, not even for the worse, because rock bottom was reached when Nardu Debono and Raymond Caruana were murdered under the protection of an MLP run police force.
There were other cases but I confine myself to those proved conclusively in our law courts.
Well then, it has to be asked, what if the British had never set foot in Malta? What would be of us today?
Ever heard of Corleone, Mafia, Camorra, Mafia clans, the Grecos, the Inzerillos, the Gambinos, the Corleonesi?
They are not so far away from us. In fact, they inhabit the land just north of us. We would have been something similar, perhaps their betters at their own game.
My thoughts exactly.
We’d speak French.
Why are you so shocked, hierarchies are continually undermined purposely by Labour and their acolytes. It is all about networks and allegiances created and made, bought via recruitment processes.
Ic- civil disgrazzjatament jibqa dilettant habba li hafna ma jilhqux bil kapacita taghhom imma lil min jafu. Ghalhekk jibqu obligati u mmexija min imnehirhom. Dak li l-Malti jsejhilhom laqgha.
‘Given that Malta was a military base for so long, and has a massive civil service built by the British on its own model, and that countless thousands of Maltese people have gained their livelihood through working directly in this context, it is a complete mystery to me how so many in the present are literally unable to understand chains of command, hierarchies and reporting systems.”
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN.
Just heard the recording posted by Malta Today and it’s not convincing me. Are you sure this is the authentic recording of telephone conversations held that night? I can’t put my finger on it, but something isn’t right. It sounds staged.
Sheenan is too calm and paced as if he is being controlled or is on sedatives during the process.
He doesn’t have any of the pitch and tone of a frantic call nor sound like a person on Red Bull.
A matter that seems not to have been addressed is: did Sheehan identify himself as being a police officer before shooting?
There are three distinct powers of state according to the classic Montesquieu theory: the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.
The distinction is not always hard-edged.
Constitutionally, the Executive power is vested in the President of the Republic though, in practice, it is exercised by the government (executive) since the President can do almost nothing without the advice of the Prime Minister.
The police form part of the executive and hence is not really a distinct power per se. Nevertheless, it is expected that it should exercise its police functions autonomously – that is, without interference from other executive authorities.
In my opinion, the Commissioner is subordinate to both the minister responsible for the police and to the Prime Minister but he is independent and autonomous from them in the exercise of his police functions.
The head of the police force (the commissioner of police) does not enjoy the kind of security of tenure like, say, the Attorney General or a judge so as to better guarantee his/her independence but this should not diminish his independence or fetter his autonomy.
The Police Act (Cap. 164) lays down that:
“There shall be a Commissioner of Police who shall be appointed by the Prime Minister and shall have the command, direction, management and superintendence of the Force.”
According to the strict exercise of the chain of command, a police constable reports, in principle, to his immediate superior, usually a sergeant and not directly to the Commissioner of Police unless instructed by the Commissioner to report to him directly.
Brava!
Effectively here the PM has three issues on his hands, all demanding the resignation of three different people, at least.
Those would be:
1. Minister Mallia
2. The Police Commissioner
and possibly his Communications Officer Kurt Farrugia.
They all stepped into territory not belonging to them and tainted proceedings. They are all culpable in their respective ways.