From fighting fires to delivering mail: Malta Police Museum showcases 200 years of history

From delivering mail to fighting fires, the responsibilities of the Malta Police Force once extended far beyond what we know as policing today. 

These details were recently highlighted by Heritage Malta in a feature about the newly-redesigned Malta Police Museum at the Floriana depot, which traces 200 years of history. 

Museum curator and former police officer Joseph Borg said the Malta Police Force was set up as a response to the Malta plague epidemic of 1813.

“The Civil Commissioner at the time, Sir Hildebrand Oakes, asked the King to deploy soldiers from the British Army to Malta, and these came to be known as urban guards,” he explained.

Policing evolved over the next two centuries, with the museum reminding people of now-defunct tasks that the police used to handle, including firefighting, enforcing the law at sea, and even delivering mail. 

In fact, exhibits include bicycles once used by ‘police postmen’. 

Other key exhibits include tools used by police officers to rescue people during the Second World War, sirens they would blast out to warn people of an impending attack and ‘all clear’ signals they would use once the danger had gone. 

Exhibition Manager Pierre Bonello said the museum was designed to be far more accessible to the general public. 

“The problem with the old museum was that it tried to tell too much and ended up only appealing to people who were truly interested in the topic,” he said. 

“We wanted it to become a museum that everyone can enjoy and relate to.”