Both SV, Venstre and MDG have asked the Minister of Justice to explain what the government intends to do with the recommendations from the Role Understanding Committee.
The conclusions from the committee show that there has not been a sufficient separation between the role of police and the role of member of NNPF, Norwegian Narcotics Police Association. Furthermore, it is concluded that the police have left the responsibility for carrying out and organizing training in the field of doping and drugs to NNPF, a private association, instead of taking responsibility for the development of skills themselves.
The committee points out that it is a democratic problem and a rule of law problem when police practice and police policy are developed by people in a private association, rather than being anchored and managed by responsible police management centrally and locally.
Police scandal
Storting representative Ingvild Wetrus Thorsvik from the Liberal Party has sent a written question to Minister of Justice Mehl in which she asks whether the government will ensure that problematic practices on the part of the police have now ceased, and which of the recommendations from the committee will the Minister of Justice implement?
WANT ANSWERS. Ingvild Thorsvik, Storting representative from the Liberal Party, wants an answer from the Minister of Justice. Photo: Martin Leigland / TV 2
To TV 2, Thorsvik says that there are a number of recommendations in the report that she would like to see the government follow up on.
– This is about, among other things, that skills development in the police should not be carried out by private organisations, that the teaching of police officers should be based on research and science, not ideology, and that the climate of expression within the police must be improved, says Thorsvik.
SV also wants to know what Mehl will do with the report she received last week. They have called the Minister of Justice in for an interview. Here, Mehl will have to explain the committee’s report and also how the government will follow up on the recommendations from the report. There will therefore be a debate in the Storting on this matter.
– We have chosen to call the minister to the Storting for an interpellation so that we can have a separate debate on this serious matter. The report shows a problematic collusion between the NNPF and the Norwegian police which is a police scandal. Then it is appropriate that the minister be called to the Storting to explain the report and how the government will follow it up, says Storting representative from SV, Andreas Sjalg Unneland to TV 2.
Private police
The Green Party (MDG) has also read the report thoroughly. They have noted that NNPF participated in an action initiated by Asker&Bærum police district.
SHOCKED. The leader of the MDG, Arild Hermstad, is shocked by what the Role Understanding Committee has revealed. Photo: Simen Askjer / TV 2
According to the report, Asker and Bærum police district launched a two-month operation, which resulted in 150 arrests for the use and possession of drugs. In a report in Budstikka on 22 October 2013, task leader Dag Funderud in the Asker and Bærum police district explained that the action was planned and carried out in “collaboration with the Norwegian Narcotics Police Association”.
Now MDG wants to know if there are more examples of such collusion. The leader of the MDG, Arild Hermstad, reacts strongly to this information.
– It is shocking. It may appear as if the NNPF has had direct participation in executive police work and in the planning of actions. If so, this may have put Norwegian citizens’ legal security at risk. Now we wonder if the minister is comfortable with the police themselves following up on such findings, says Hermstad to TV2.
Four parties want answers
Red also wants an answer from Mehl. Storting representative Tobias Drevland Lund has submitted a question to the Minister of Justice in which he asks when Mehl will come to the Storting to give an account of the work to follow up the report from the Role Understanding Committee.
– What emerges in the report is a scandal and then political responsibility is required from the highest levels in the Ministry of Justice, says Drevland to TV 2.
