Centre, Old Oslo | Yes, it can be safe on the streets again. But it is not done with words

The Oslo police district called in the press. Together with police chief Ida Melbo Øystese, among others, Justice and Emergency Services Minister Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) and Labor and Inclusion Minister Tonje Brenna (Ap) participated during the session on crime in Oslo.

Let me start with the conclusion: I had expected more from the politicians. Clearer measures and clear promises about money and prioritization.

Must prioritize

It is obvious that the police know what it takes. If Ida Melbo Øystese had room in the budget for that, she would provide a whole host of measures:

• Enough police officers out on the streets to create security for ordinary people and at the same time stop much of the gross violence and the use of weapons.
• Sufficient investigative capacity to avoid everyday crime having to be dismissed on the basis of a lack of resources. When bicycles are stolen without anyone being punished, it does something to the society around us because the sense of justice erodes.
• Enough investigative capacity to prevent mafia activity and organized crime from gaining even more foothold. The culprits must be caught and money must be confiscated.
• And not least: even greater measures to prevent young people from being lured into crime and drug addiction. Much of the key to long-term success lies here, and it must be done in collaboration with schools, child protection and organisations.

But all this cannot be achieved at the same time across the entire city without a joint giant lift. A boost that requires the government to prioritize a lot of money for it. Unfortunately, we received no such signals at the press conference.

All credit to the chief of police who takes action with the means at her disposal, but everything smacks of an investment and prioritization that the police must make within a roughly similar resource base as they have today.

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Concerned police chief

– After several decades of a decline in crime, we are now seeing an increase. We are concerned about the increase we have now seen in youth crime over the past year, and are particularly concerned about the use of violence and the carrying of knives, said Øystese.

In the central unit, priority will be given to Greenland and Tøyen. In the west, Majorstuen, Sandvika and Asker center will be prioritized and in unit east Furuset, Mortensrud, Bjørnerud, Veitvet and Bjørndal are at the top of the priority list.

Øystese would not be specific about which budgets she will receive to solve this. Nor would she say anything about what needs to be prioritized to make this happen. She did not want to notify criminals about other areas for which there will be less resources.

The risk is very much present that you just move the problems around. But something more is needed.

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Broad settlement, joint investment

Much more money is required for the police and not least for preventive work.

Emilie Enger Mehl gave vague signals. Yes, there will be more money in the revised state budget in a couple of weeks. She has to come back to how much then. It was woolly and it gave little hope of the kind of prioritization needed.

In the same way, it was when her party leader in the Center Party, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, was in the Political Quarter on NRK on Monday.

From Labor deputy leader Tonje Brenna there are really different signals. Both at the press conference with Mehl and in the studio with Vedum, she was more concrete and ambitious.

In Politisk kvarter, it was clear that Brenna and Oslo city council leader Eirik Lae Solberg (H) actually agreed.

I am sure that the Labor Party and the Conservative Party could get together on such a matter. SV and FRP would certainly have been involved as well. They would have prioritized much more money for the Oslo police to clean up before this gets worse.

We have a tradition of such large settlements when national interests are at stake. In particular, the Conservative Party and Ap tend to be quite in agreement when it comes to security, the pandemic or the really big questions.

The gangs’ guns don’t shoot wolves

But the Center Party has no tradition of prioritizing big cities.

Therefore, perhaps it is time to cry wolf about the district party Sp’s role in stopping gang crime.

In this situation, the party that holds both the finance minister and the justice minister has its voters elsewhere than in the big cities. They win in opinion polls when there is a district rebellion.

Therefore, an alliance of Ap and Sp is not suitable to give Oslo the priority the city needs. For Sp, it’s all about equalizing differences between city and country, and making priorities that enable people to live outside the big cities.

In that analysis, the fact that the biggest differences in Norway are found between people who live in the same city, yes, even in the same district, is drowned out. It is not far between Grønland and Bjørvika in the Gamle Oslo district.

But the gangs’ guns don’t shoot wolves and the Center Party doesn’t have a sheep to save or hardly a voter to pick up in the big city. And then for the time being there will be more talk than money, while what we need is the opposite.

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