Norwegian Police Force Research Articles

Still the Exception? Challenging Ideas of Gender in Norwegian Policing

Abstract This article is an empirical exploration of the role of gender in today’s Norwegian police force. For this study, 21 emergency response officers were interviewed as part of an investigation into the role played by gender in operational police work. This study indicates that changes towards a more gender-equal Norwegian society, combined with general developments within the police at a time when the number of women in the police force has increased considerably, have led to female operational police officers finding that their gender is not a problem. The findings challenge earlier models of theorising and conceptualisation, and point to the need to avoid perpetuating notions that may needlessly limit policewomen’s individual freedom and agency on account of their gender.

Commentary: Does the Norwegian Police Force Need a Well-Functioning Combat Mindset?

Commentary: Does the Norwegian Police Force Need a Well-Functioning Combat Mindset?

Does the Norwegian Police Force Need a Well-Functioning Combat Mindset?

This article discusses the apparent lack of a well-functioning combat mindset evident in the Norwegian Police Force during the terrorist attacks in Norway on July 22, 2011. We describe what a well-functioning combat mindset is and then continue to discuss challenges linked to the current mindset in the Norwegian Police Force. We then elaborate upon how the experience of an acute stress reaction may affect one’s ability to solve a mission. Then we describe how to cope with stress and the importance of a well-functioning combat mindset, and we then discuss techniques in order to build a well-functioning combat mindset. Furthermore, we describe how coping with an extreme cognitive load and a well-functioning combat mindset are related. Finally, we suggest a method for practicing combat mindset (CM-training). The combat mindset training needs to include both realistic training and systematic reflection in order to a better ability to deal with sudden and unforeseen events.

The Norwegian Police Force: a learning organization?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine what decisions to prosecute, sent to the local police districts from the Norwegian Bureau for the Investigation of Police Affairs (the body responsible for investigated charges against the police), can tell us about the challenges the police face in becoming a learning organization.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this paper were collected in connection with the subproject that studied how the police districts handled the cases they received from the Bureau for Administrative Evaluation. This project was carried out in 2008‐2009 and is based methodically on a study of 33 (of a total of 35) different cases from 2007, which ensures a broad thematic scope.FindingsThe willingness of the leadership to take responsibility for the organization's systematic ability – and liberty – to ask fundamental questions about dominant values and norms, and thus to promote experiential learning, varied greatly. Whether the administrative cases were perceived to belong on the individual or the organizational level had great impact on how the cases were defined when they came back to the local police district, which again decided how the cases were handled. This had consequences for the degree to which the cases were the subject of individual or collective learning processes in the police district.Research limitations/implicationsThe role of the police as custodians of law and order may paradoxically limit the organization's ability to learn from potentially criminal events and cases that come from the Bureau for Administrative Evaluation. This contributes to a weak system focus and a strong individual focus, where individual shame bearers are created and double‐loop learning is avoided.Practical implicationsTo ensure that the learning systems are actually used and function as intended, it might be apposite to have regular litmus tests of the development by analyzing the handling of concrete events and patterns which emerge over time. An important element in this connection is to observe how leaders deal with potentially shameful incidents, both internally and in the public light, and thus constitute the police organization's boundaries to the outside world.Originality/valueThe paper argues that the police's role as custodians of law and order paradoxically may contribute towards limiting the organization's ability to learn from potentially criminal events and cases that come from the Bureau for Administrative Evaluation.

Becoming a learning organization

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which espoused values among police managers in the Norwegian police force are compatible with those of a learning organization.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was developed and administered to police managers in two police districts in Norway. A set of values was developed to measure police culture and their significant correlation with those of a learning organization. All values were believed to represent cultural dimensions of potential importance to law enforcement performance.FindingsIt was found that police managers espoused values of informality and empowerment rather than authority and hierarchical order. These values are the only police values that are found to be significantly correlated with those of a learning organization. Moreover, these findings contradict the previous literature within policing, which describes a police culture of hierarchy, authority and closeness. Also, these values only represent two of the eight values that were found to be crucial for becoming a learning organization.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need for police managers to both espouse and enact values in accordance of those of a learning organization, but this study only investigates espoused values. Hence, further research is needed to investigate the possibilities for the Norwegian police force to become a learning organization.Originality/valueThe paper provides empirical research to generate insights into espoused values of the Norwegian police force and identifies those values that are crucial for their possibilities of becoming a learning organization.

Continuum of Police Crime: An Empirical Study of Court Cases

The great majority of police officers are committed to honourable and competent public service and consistently demonstrate integrity and accountability in carrying out the often difficult, complex and sometimes dangerous activities involved in policing by consent. However, in every police agency there exists an element of dishonesty, lack of professionalism and criminal behaviour. This article is based on archival research of criminal behaviour in the Norwegian police force. A total of 60 police employees were prosecuted in court because of misconduct and crime from 2005 to 2010. Court cases were coded as two potential predictors of court sentence in terms of imprisonment days, ie, type of deviance and level of deviance. Categories of police crime and levels were organised according to a conceptual framework developed for assessing and managing police deviance. Empirical findings support the hypothesis that as the seriousness of police crime increases in breadth and depth so also does the severity of the court sentence as measured by time in prison.

Police Misconduct Behaviour: An Empirical Study of Court Cases

The great majority of individuals in policing are committed to honourable and competent public service. However, in every police agency there exists an element of dishonesty, lack of professionalism, and criminal behaviour. This article is based on empirical research of criminal behaviour in the Norwegian police force. A total of 60 police employees were prosecuted in court because of misconduct and crime from 2005 to 2010. In our research, court cases were classified into categories of sentence severity measured in terms of days in prison. Out of 60 police employees on trial, 20 cases were dismissed from court. 12 persons were sentenced to less than 2 weeks in jail, 15 persons to less than 2 months, 9 persons to less than 2 years, and 4 persons to more than 2 years in prison. Language: en

Collectivism versus individualism in police cultures

This article explores how organisational culture, as a complex ensemble of values, attitudes, symbols, rules, and practice, emerges as people react to situations and exigencies shaped by its members' interpretations, and how it develops as people respond in various meaningful ways. We study police cultures and their interpretation of values, more specifically among newcomers in law enforcement, counter terrorist officers and criminal investigators in the Norwegian police force. Cultural values are related to characteristics of policemen as more collectivistic than individualistic in their interpretation and awareness of their own organisational culture. We find that the police culture is characterised as more collectivistic than individualistic. However, there are significant variations related to the respondents' interpretation of values. Rather than being absolutely individualistic or collectivistic, police officers seem to be somewhere between the two on a scale ranging from extreme individualism to extreme collectivism, especially with regard to the complexity of attitudes, symbols and rules related to cultural values. Each officer's location on this scale seems influenced by experience and duties at hand. The officers also vary in their responses on the basis of demographic background, individual personalities and interpretations.

Police management roles as determinants of knowledge sharing attitude in criminal investigations

Purpose – The paper aims to argue that leadership by police managers is needed to stimulate and encourage knowledge sharing in police investigations, and to report an empirical study of what management roles are most important in investigations.Design/methodology/approach – A research model was designed based on six management roles and a set of hypothesized relationships. A survey measuring management roles and knowledge sharing attitude was conducted in Norway. Respondents were senior investigation officers.Findings – Only one management role was found to be a significant determinant of knowledge sharing in police investigations based on the sample used in this survey research within the Norwegian police force: the spokesman role was the only significant role. As a spokesman, the senior investigation officer extends organizational contacts to promote acceptance of the unit and the unit's work within the organization of which they are a part.Research limitations/implications – The low response rate of 20...

Predictors of police investigation performance: An empirical study of Norwegian police as value shop

Problem-solving organizations such as hospitals, law firms, engineering enterprises, consulting firms, and law enforcement agencies share the same value configuration of a value shop. Rather than inbound and outbound logistics found in value chains, value shops have activities concerned with problem understanding and solving. Based on the value shop model, this paper reports research on determinants of police investigation performance. Empirical results indicate that decision leadership in a democratic culture with knowledge sharing and information systems leads to better police investigation performance. That is—in one sentence—the main finding of this research. These predictors of police investigation performance were identified based on survey research in the Norwegian police force. This paper makes an important contribution to information management research, as information technology is competing with other predictors in explaining performance in knowledge-intensive organizations.

Information systems in the value shop business of police investigations

This paper reports results from an empirical study of police investigations in Norway. Investigation performance was linked to the extent of Information Systems (IS) used to support investigative work. It was found that IS improve the performance of all investigative processes defined as value shop activities. Furthermore, out of 14 common systems used by the Norwegian police force, only two systems had a significant impact on investigation performance.

Conflict and Local Mobilization : The Alta Hydropower Project 1

The article presents and discusses attitudes to the Alta case among the local population. This hydropower project, which also raised the issue of Lappish minority rights, created one of the most dramatic political conflicts in Norway since World War II, also on the national level. The survey was done in the Winter 1980/81. This was just before one of the dramatic high points of the conflict the large police action involving about 10% of the total Norwegian police force The Alta case had developed into a symbol for conflicts over conservation that had developed since the late 1960s. The location of the project, in one of the core areas of Lappish settlement, created additional complications Our survey pictures a strongly polanzed society. The parties to the conflict not only disagreed on the local issue The intensity and escalation of the conflict led a large number of people to doubt the ability of national authorities to make right and just decisions. They also developed very different 'world pictures', cutting across traditional political cleavages.