Poll shows eight out of ten Norwegian police officers want to carry weapons

Police at work.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

In a new survey from the Police College, 80% of police said they wish to carry weapons. In 2011, only 20% answered ‘yes’.

 

Police College researchers asked members of the Police League if police officers should always carry service weapons, and received 5,000 replies, wrote Politiforum.

60% answered ‘no’, and only 20% answered ‘yes’ to the same question in 2011.

Now, 80% said ‘yes’ to being armed, while only 15% said ‘no’.

In March, the Police Committee concluded that police weapons should still be locked in the car. Only three police chiefs disagreed, but the researchers believe the committee had looked too little into how the police themselves experienced everyday life.

‘You have to ask why the police want to arm themselves. It’s not because they want to carry weapons for weapons sake’, one of the researchers, Bjørn Barland, added.

The Police College also made a general poll, in which 49% were against, and 46%
were pro permanent arming of forces.

‘What’s interesting is that the forces are least positive for the arms in Oslo, where the
police are most numerous,’ said Pernille Skjevrak, another researcher in the team.

The Police Security Service (PST) has recommended that the police be armed. They believe the risk has changed in recent years, with a jihadist terror threat on European soil. Also the union of the police federation are for permanent armed forces, wrote NRK news.

©  NTB Scanpix / Norway Today