Nordic police union warns of police crisis

Police.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

The leaders of police associations in the Nordic countries are warning of a police crisis in Europe.

They believe the distance between citizens and the police is increasing and that new political models is the problem.
– Police in the Nordic region are citizens police. Not consultancy police. Yet we still let these consultancies steer the police away from the citizens, the community and the trust that is the solution to the challenges, writes the union leaders in an article in the newspaper Aftenposten.
Norway is represented by head Sigve Bolstad in Polit Fellesforbund.
Together they ask how it can be that the welfare state has cut down expertise, proximity and number of police officers, while insecurity and threats to democracy rises.
– It’s insane. It must stop. Listen to your employees. Use the neighbourhood and expertise. Get the respect and trust of police expertise back – and stop selling it in pieces to private providers.
Police leaders point to the public governance form New Public Management as part of the problem.
– In New Public Management it is not the citizens first. It makes squares, plans and consultant reports that will form the basis for production in the public sector.
The police shall be organized as a production factory, where everything is measured, according to the chronicle.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today