Confidence in the police is less than before, a new study shows. The lowest confidence in the police is found in Western Norway.
In a survey done for Domstoladministrasjonen 80 percent of respondents said that they trust the police, NRK reported. 22 percent say they have “very high confidence” to the police – the year before the figure was 31 percent.
On the west coast the situation is worse. Here only 16 percent have “very great confidence” with the police, and as many as 18 per cent say that they have “little confidence”.
The head of the Norwegian Police Federation West, Kjetil Rekdal, is not surprised.
He believes alerts matter, the Monika case and lack of investigation of drug crime has been instrumental in putting the police in Oslo and Western police in a bad light – and that this has had an impact on the audience’s response in this study.
Also police reform, which causes many sheriff offices being laid off, can lead to more doubt about the police being able to solve the tasks they are set to resolve.
Police Director Odd Reidar Humlegård says it’s reassuring that eight out of ten have great or very great confidence in the police.
– This is in line with our own resident survey, which in recent years have shown that 80 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat highly trust in the police.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
