The majority accept increased surveillance in fight against terror

Monitoring.Photo pixabay.com

Many people support increased surveillance if the government says the goal is to prevent terrorist attacks, according to a new survey.

In the survey, made by Norstat for newspaper Vårt Land,  half of those surveyed responded “largely” or “to a fairly large extent” on the following question: “If the government’s stated goal is to prevent terrorist attacks, to what extent do you think it is okay to give police increased powers of surveillance of citizens? ”
28 percent ended up in the most positive category, while 22 percent answered “to a great extent.” In addition,  28 percent  replied “To some extent.” 12 percent said they were mostly unwilling to give the police increased powers, while 7 percent chose the answer “not at all”. 3 percent said they “do not know”.
Researcher Trond Heir by Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies thinks  people are a bit more concerned with international terrorism than before because of the events in Europe.
– But I still don’t think it’s one of the subjects that occupies the attention of  most Norwegians  in their everyday lives. It is easy to respond depending on the situation and switching from one point of view to another, says Heir.
– The responses are also based on a trust that terror can be averted through surveillance, and less fear of the misuse of surveillance.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today