Reforming the Norwegian police between structure and culture: Community police or emergency police
| Date | 01 July 2018 |
| Published date | 01 July 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076717709523 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Reforming the
Norwegian police
between structure and
culture: Community
police or emergency
police
Tom Christensen
Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Oslo,
Norway
Per Lægreid
Department of Administration and Organization Theory,
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Lise H Rykkja
Uni Research Rokkan Centre, Bergen, Norway
Abstract
This article examines the reform of the police in Norway between 2012 to 2015
drawing upon central public reports and official documents leading up to the reform.
These include the report from the official Inquiry Commission into the police response
to the terrorist attacks in Oslo and at Utøya in July 2011, a report issued by a public
commission in 2013 – established to analyze challenges within the police – and the
resulting government proposal and parliamentary discussion that culminated in a deci-
sion to create a new police structure in 2015. While governance capacity and the need
for a stronger emergency police were a main concern throughout the process, the
importance of governance legitimacy and of maintaining a community police force
became more important towards the end. The organizational thinking behind the
reform is explained in terms of a structural and an institutional perspective. The analysis
shows that both cultural and structural change was seen as prominent instruments for
improving the police force, but they were emphasized differently at different points
during the process. The analysis demonstrates that political context, agenda settings,
Public Policy and Administration
2018, Vol. 33(3) 241–259
!The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0952076717709523
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Corresponding author:
Per Lægreid, Christiegt 17, Bergen 5007, Norway.
Email: Per.Lagreid@uib.no
attention shifting and situational factors as well as path dependency were important
drivers of the reform.
Keywords
Crisis, culture, Norway, police reform, structure, institutionalism
Introduction
Public organizations may change through continuous evolution and adjustment, as
a result of deliberate actions by political-administrative leaders, in response to
external shocks, or through a combination of all three. The 2011 terrorist attacks
in Norway constituted such a shock and triggered a change process aimed at
improving crisis management involving a broad spectrum of collaborating political
and administrative bodies. The attacks also prompted an internal reform of the
Norwegian police. A report (NOU 2013: 9) issued by a public commission
(The Police Analysis) created in 2012 suggested changing the organizational struc-
ture of the police, mainly by strengthening the central agency and merging regional
police districts and local police stations and addressed the need to strengthen the
competence of the police. The decision-making process was concluded in 2015 after
a broad debate in parliament and was followed by an implementation process that
is still ongoing.
The decision-making process leading up to the reform was characterized by
tensions between different values and goals: between centralization and decentral-
ization, between governance capacity and legitimacy, and between the need for an
emergency police force to manage major crises and a community police force tasked
with crime prevention in close contact with citizens. This article analyzes the deci-
sion-making rather than the implementation process. Our in-depth qualitative ana-
lysis of the reform process and the final reform decision draws on relevant public
documents and is based on two analytical perspectives; a structural/instrumental
and a broad institutional perspective. The main questions are:
.What characterized the reform process from 2012 to 2015? Which central actors
were involved, and what was their organizational thinking?
.How did the agenda concerning different values and goals change over time? To
what extent are they clustered and connected?
.How can we explain the participation patterns and organizational thinking
behind the reform, based on structural and institutional perspectives? And
what can we learn from the analysis in the way of broader theoretical insights?
In the following, we first give an outline of our theoretical perspectives. Second,
we examine the background to the reform. Third, we describe the content of the
Police Analysis, the subsequent government proposal to parliament, the report
from the parliamentary select committee, and finally the parliamentary debate
242 Public Policy and Administration 33(3)
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