200 Years of the National Police of Malta

Two centuries of the Malta Police Force, established in 1814 by Proclamation XXII — making it one of the oldest police forces in Europe. The national side of the coin shows the Malta Police Force badge, surrounded by the inscription "200 YEARS · MALTA POLICE FORCE" and the dates 1814–2014.

The Malta Police Force is one of the oldest state law enforcement authorities in Europe. Its founding dates back to 1814, when Malta was under British rule and a formally organised police force was established through Proclamation XXII. Over the following decades, the Malta Police Force developed into an institution that went far beyond merely maintaining public order: it shaped the relationship between state and population on an archipelago whose strategic position in the Mediterranean repeatedly attracted international powers and influenced the everyday life of its inhabitants. Beyond the colonial era, the police remained a continuous state institution after Maltese independence in 1964, adapting to the new republic's changed legal framework.

The two-hundredth anniversary of the Malta Police Force in 2014 fell in a period when Malta, as an EU member for ten years, had become part of the European area of security and law. The authority's history thus exemplifies Malta's historical arc: from British crown colony through independence to European integration. The institutional continuity across two centuries - through world wars, political upheavals and the transition from colonial administration to a sovereign state - makes the anniversary an occasion that reaches deep into Malta's constitutional and administrative history.