Police recruits should be tested for racial bias, former inspector says

Mary Muscat

Police recruits should face a detailed psychological evaluation so that any issues relating to racial hatred may be flagged before they join the force, according to a former police inspector.

Lawyer and criminologist Mary Muscat, who has also lectured at the Police Academy, said all potential officers should go through such a test to help root out racism from the ranks.

She was speaking after three police officers were last week charged with kidnapping and assaulting foreign nationals.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said.

“All we have to do is emulate what other police forces in other European countries have done. In the UK, for example, the Metropolitan Police already use this tool to flag such issues so all we have to do is look at what they have done and do the same thing,” she added.

Muscat was, until recently, a lecturer at the Police Academy where she trained officers in policing hate crime as part of a training programme designed by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for police officers and prosecutors.

A lecturer at the faculty of laws as well as child advocate in the family and juvenile courts, Muscat insisted that...