Confidence in the police is diminishing

Police at work..Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

Last year, 77% of the population responded that they had confidence or very great confidence in the police, a decrease of 6% from 2017 according to a survey.

The survey was carried out by Kantar TNS, commissioned by the police.

‘’There may be several reasons for the decline.

In parallel with the implementation of the police reform, the world and crime have changed.

Police have been given more and more complex and laborious tasks, and do not deliver good enough results’’ the police said.

‘’The police are in a period of demanding reform.

In addition, we have seen several major cases last year that probably affect people’s perception of the police. For example, the Eirik Jensen case. It is therefore not surprising that this year’s population survey shows somewhat weaker results than before’’ said Minister of Justice and Immigration, Tor Mikkel Wara of Fremskrittsparti (FRP).

Gap

The survey shows a gap between Norwegians’ concerns about computer crime, and the impression of the police’s ability to deal with such cases.

Six out of ten Norwegians responded that they believe the police deal with traffic-related events in a good way, while only three out of ten have confidence in the police’s ability to handle cases such as sexual abuse, GBH and internet fraud.

Only two out of ten believe the police’s handling of harassment and bullying online is good.

Big need

Technological developments are fast, crime is becoming more complex, more difficult to detect, and more challenging to investigate. The police see that we must be better at preventing and investigating crime that happens on the net’’ said acting police director, Håkon Skulstad.

‘’There is a great need to change the police to deal with online crime. The volume of cases has increased considerably. The police reform should have been implemented many years ago to meet these challenges’’ Wara stated.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today