The Malta Police Force is using Maltese nannas to spy on and report people who break mandatory quarantine.
Two weeks ago, Bis-Serjetà reported that Malta’s grandmas had banded together to try and stop Covid-19 from getting a foothold in Malta by vigorously scrubbing the bit of pavement in front of their homes.
Now that the virus is in Malta, and the nation’s elderly have been advised to remain indoors, the nannas have been redrafted as a crack team of snoopers.
“China offered to sell us the latest in surveillance technology, but we told them, “Why would we need advanced facial recognition when we have Maltese nannas – who know every single person in their village or town – peeping through curtains 24/7?” a police spokesperson said.
“They also have established gossip networks with other nannas, and can use their grandchildren as informants too.”
The spokesperson said using nannas for surveillance was not without its difficulties.
“Sometimes during the daily debrief you have to sift through a lot of unnecessary information, like who is married to who, what another nanna told them, what operations they’ve had cancelled and so on. And of course, we’ve had to teach them how to use our online reporting system, which frankly has been a nightmare.
“But at least the rest of you don’t need to carrry on acting like mini-Gestapo officers taking photos of everyone. Don’t worry, the nannas have got this covered.
