Opinions This is a debate post. The post expresses the writer’s views.
A policeman in Buskerud was this week sentenced to 120 days in prison in the Court of Appeal after first being acquitted in the district court. The judgment has been appealed to the Supreme Court. He was accused of using too much violence during an arrest. The case has been widely discussed in the media and it has raised a debate about where the limit is for the police’s use of force. Norwegian police are among the best trained in the world. The Norwegian police often have a fairly soft approach to resolving assignments. Where the police in other countries rush forward and shoot frequently, many missions where people have, for example, entrenched themselves in a house and threaten with weapons in Norway, are solved by calming down the situation and taking time. In most cases, it is resolved without much drama.
At the same time, violence is increasing in many places. The police report that they often meet people who are mentally ill. The police seize many knives outside the city. In Oslo, stabbings in public places are not unusual. Working as a police officer is demanding, at least if you patrol the streets. In a matter of seconds, they have to make decisions that are subsequently assessed and scrutinized by people inside an office, who have never been face to face with a person who could easily pose a serious threat.
Without having followed the case at Kongsberg from day to day, it will not surprise us if it will lead to the police becoming more uncertain about how much force they can use. It is hardly easy to know exactly where the line is when you are in a very serious situation.
Fortunately, the big picture is that most of us rarely or never have anything untoward with the police, apart from being stopped once in a while by UP who asks you to blow a drug test. Norwegian police are understaffed. There is no match between the tasks and the resources. It is also a stress factor when you have to tidy up one place and then you would rather be somewhere else at the same time.
It is one of the rarities that someone is put to the ground by the police in Norway for absolutely no reason. We can trust the police. If you behave well, you have nothing to fear. How much force can the police use to calm down a situation and solve a mission? In the extreme, the police can take lives. They are the spearhead of society. They are the ones who have to run towards a perpetrator, while the rest of us run in the opposite direction.
Being a police officer is a very demanding profession. Society hardens in many places. The balance between being resolute and intervening with force and not crossing the line is delicate. Perhaps a camera on the uniform is the way to go, so that everything they do is documented with film and sound?
