PST strongly disagrees with the arbitration committee’s ‘no’ to guns for the police.
‘We believe strong, armed forces are necessary,’ said the PST boss.
PST considers that the government committee’s assessment of the necessity for police to carry weapons was made on the wrong grounds.
‘PST believes the committee have posted unpredictable, and unpublished or peer reviewed information as a basis for its assessments, and conclusions, regarding the significance of terror, and the issue of police arrest’, PST said in a consultation response sent to the Justice Department on Tuesday.
The Arbitration Committee concluded that today’s order of a regular unarmed police force who have access to single and two-hand weapons in patrol cars, called forward storage, should be continued.
PST chief, Benedicte Bjørnland, said to TV 2 that she disagrees completely with this.
‘The earlier the police can stop the perpetrator, the fewer lives will be lost.
The PST believe that solid armed forces are necessary for police to be able to carry out the community engagement it is intended for, and which citizens expect. As PST sees it, the Norwegian forward storage model is not adapted to today’s terrorist threat’, she said.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
