Majority of Maltese people have trust in local police force

Feb 15 2023

According to a survey conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the police force in Malta has varying levels of trust among the majority of the population.

Out of those surveyed, 44.9% expressed a high level of trust, 45.1% expressed a moderate level, and only 9.7% expressed a slight or no trust in the police.

55.3% of the population had a positive or very positive opinion of the police, while 8.7% had a negative or very negative opinion, and 35.8% expressed no opinion.

Respondents who trusted the police cited reasons such as fairness, dignity, and respect (48.9%), their presence being felt (40.2%), and prompt action when called upon (31.5%).

On the other hand, those who did not trust the police cited reasons such as their absence (27.6%), lack of fairness, dignity, and respect (24.5%), and failure to act or respond (19.4%).

The survey also asked participants about their perceptions of the police force in terms of integrity, professionalism, and impartiality. 59.6% believed that the police had a high level of integrity, while 68.5% saw them as providing a professional level of service and 54.1% as impartial enforcers of the law.

Additionally, 32.7% of the population had some type of contact with the police within the past 12 months, with two-thirds rating their experience as good or very good and 18.2% rating it as bad or very bad.

When asked about the type of service they would like to see an increase in, 79.5% preferred more visibility of police officers on the road, and 18% preferred access to a nearer police station.

Just over half of the respondents (53.2%) did not follow the police force on social media, while 30.3% believed that the police force had undergone a good or very good level of modernisation in its public image and operations within the past year. The largest segment (48.6%) believed that modernisation in these two aspects had been moderate.

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Banksy tackles domestic violence with Valentine’s Day piece

Feb 15 2023

Mysterious British graffiti artist Banksy has returned to unveil his latest UK street artwork, and this time he is taking aim at the issue of domestic violence on Valentine’s Day.

The artwork shows a stereotypical 1950’s housewife with a black eye and missing tooth as she disposes of her abusive husband’s body in a freezer.

The artwork appeared in Margate, south-east England, earlier this week. Speculation circled about who was the originator of the art before Banksy confirmed it himself on his social media.

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A post shared by Banksy (@banksy)

One of the close-up images of the artwork was also captioned with ‘Valentine’s day mascara’.

Banksy is well known for tackling controversial or massive social issues through his graffiti work. Prior to this, Banksy travelled to Ukraine to create some protest pieces against the war-waging Russia whilst raising money for the NHS in the process.

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First look at Bolt’s small taxis as they take to Maltese roads

Feb 15 2023

It was announced earlier this week that Bolt, in collaboration with Buzzz Electric, will be testing the three-wheeled Carver Electric on Maltese roads.

The 100% electric vehicle is just 98cm wide and is expected to carve through gaps in traffic. The Carver boasts more stability than a motorcycle due to its three wheel structure.

According to ZAG Daily, Bolt aims to offer customers the best use-case for ‘every purpose a personal car serves, while solving traffic problems and the pollution that comes with it.’

Bolt informed ZAG Daily that the testing phase will last for a couple off months, with the vehicles only made available in smaller geo-fenced areas with Malta.

As more vehicles enter the market, the services will expand it accordingly. Ryan Mahoney, Country Manager for Bolt in Malta, told Zag that given how cities were built for cars, the collaboration will offer locals and visitors a ‘more effective and environmentally friendly transportation option.’

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380,000 passenger movements in January for Malta International Airport

Feb 15 2023

Malta International Airport’s traffic has, after several months off registering strong recovery rates, surpassed 2019’s passenger numbers for the first time since February off 2020 in January.

January’s traffic amounted to 379,335 passenger movements. This marks an increase of 3.6% when compared to the same month in 2019.

Despite being a big improvement in terms of pandemic recovery, the busiest start still remains a record held by January 2020’s passenger movements at 418,096.

Almost 77% of the available seats operated to and/or from Malta’s airport were occupied in January, which indicates a demand for travel. However, demand is expected to start levelling off as the year progresses.

Out of the 31 markets connected to in January, Italy remained at the top spot with 85,618 passenger movements. The UK followed close in second place with 58,836, with France, Poland and Germany following suit.

The German market lost the top spot it occupied for several months to Poland. While more seat capacity was deployed on German routes, a significant difference in the seat load performance of 92% for Poland and 77% for Germany, resulted in the former overtaking the latter by 695 passenger movements.

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