In every third local police area that has one or more exposed areas, the police are not present to the extent that the authority itself has decided that it should be. This is shown by the National Audit Office’s review of the police’s work in vulnerable areas.
In 2015, the police began to publicly compile which areas in the country were judged to be vulnerable – with low socio-economic status and where criminals have an impact on the local community.
It is currently about 60 places, where 22 areas are described as particularly vulnerable.
According to the police’s working model in local police areas with vulnerable areas, there shall be one (1) so-called area police per 5,000 inhabitants.
An area police must prioritize long-term work and contact creation, over, for example, intervention activities.
The National Audit Office, which examined the police’s work in vulnerable areas, has concluded that the area police’s presence is lacking in every third local police area that has one or more vulnerable areas. There, they do not live up to their own requirement for an area police per 5,000 inhabitants.
According to the National Audit Office This is something that the Police Authority is not aware of because it does not have the opportunity to measure how resources are allocated in these areas.
However, the police officers who serve in vulnerable areas generally try to do so in the best possible way based on the resources available, according to the National Audit Office’s review, which also shows that police officers who work in vulnerable areas believe that they do not have enough equipment, especially fixed surveillance cameras and body-worn cameras are in demand.
The police also have difficulty accessing relevant information from the municipalities’ social services, about young people who are suspected of being connected to crime, according to the National Audit Office.
Source: ICELAND NEWS