On 25 June, Oslo was hit by mass shootings outside several nightclubs. The attack is being investigated as a terrorist attack, and PST has stated that they believe queer people were the target of the attack. Oslo Pride and a number of other events were subsequently canceled due to the increased threat level and advice from the PST and the police. The fact that the police went to great lengths to stop events created debate. But no letter or other documentation about the police’s handling of the attack and the level of threat afterwards is visible to the public as it should be. The Norwegian Police Directorate is required to publish an overview of letters and documents in an open journal on the internet. This is part of the transparency rules for public agencies in the Public Information Act. But the public record of the police’s top body is missing thousands of documents. The most recent document listed at the time of writing is dated June 16 – several days before the mass shooting. The documents that are published in the list now are thus more than two months old. Supervision: Seven orders after discovery of violations of laws and regulations That the Norwegian Police Directorate does not have control over its documents and records is also something that the state’s own control body for document handling has noticed. The preliminary inspection report announces seven orders. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news In spring and summer, the Swedish National Archives inspected the archive and document handling at the Norwegian Police Directorate. In the inspection, they found several conditions that were not in line with laws and regulations. They are therefore now warning that they are considering imposing seven orders on the police’s highest body to clean up. One of the orders is linked to large quantities of documents that have not been registered correctly in the police’s systems. Over 10,000 documents were missing When the National Archives extracted figures from the archive systems at the directorate in April this year, it turned out: Over 10,000 documents were not registered correctly None of them were therefore included in the public overview of documents from the Directorate of Police 1258 of the documents were older than three months , but still not visible in the public record Read the report: Preliminary inspection report with the archive in the Directorate of Police – It is a large scope. Both in the Police Directorate and in the police districts, says national archivist Inga Bolstad to news. National Archivist Inga Bolstad is critical of the findings from the inspection at the Directorate of Police. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news – Why is it problematic? – When it is like this, it means that you as a journalist or I as a citizen cannot have access to matters that are of interest to me, says the national archivist. She explains that it is a democratic problem for society, but that it can also affect the police themselves if they do not have their own archives in order. – You can risk not having the documentation you need in a case. You can also risk losing trust. In addition, you can risk using too many resources because you do not have order and control in the archive, says Bolstad. – Can they risk not being able to find it in their own papers? – Yes, they cannot find it if the archive is not in order, says national archivist Inga Bolstad. Not a new problem In the preliminary inspection report, the National Archives warns that the Norwegian Police Directorate may be required to clean up the missing registrations of documents within six months. However, the problem is not new. Already in 2016, the Norwegian Police Directorate had complaints against it from the press for late registration of documents. news had then said that it took an average of 41 days for documents to appear in the public record. In a comprehensive report from the Press’ Publicity Committee in 2017, delays in the publication of journals were pointed out. The National Audit Office has also investigated the conditions twice. In both 2017 and 2021, reports from the National Audit Office showed that there were too many delays. The National Audit Office, as the Storting’s control body, has therefore expressed that the practice is strongly criticised. – This is about the nation’s collective memory. It is an essential principle that lays the foundation for democratic debate. That is why we have said that it is strongly criticizable, said Auditor General Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen during a debate in Arendalsuka this year. The Norwegian Police Directorate will clean it up, but it will take time Confronted with the findings of the inspection and the notified orders, the Norwegian Police Directorate admits that it is not good enough to have such large delays and deficiencies related to the handling of documents. – We take this seriously. It is neither desirable for us nor the public that we have this type of delay. We have introduced measures, but unfortunately there are slow-acting measures related to organisation, training and culture in the organisation, says director of staff Ane Mannsåker Roald in the Norwegian Police Directorate to news. She emphasizes that they have been working on solving it for at least two years already. – It is now impossible for journalists, individuals or organizations such as the queer environment to see which documents the police have handled in connection with the attack in Oslo in June – how do you see it yourself? – This in itself illustrates the problem very well. When we are delayed in the way we are now, it makes the opportunities for insight difficult. That is why we take it seriously, says the director of staff. Director of Staff Ane Mannsåker Roald in the Norwegian Police Directorate says they are working on the problems, but that it will take time to get everything in order. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news She states that there are several reasons why they have had such long delays as they are now. – It partly started with us changing the case and archive system just before the pandemic started. So it has been difficult to secure user support and user training throughout a long pandemic. In addition, we have had a very strong increase in access requirements and there have been factors in the organization that have made us vulnerable to sickness absence and the like, says Roald. – Why hasn’t anything been done about this before? – I don’t think it’s right that nothing has been done about it before. We are working on it, but it is simply a very slow-acting measure, says the director of staff and explains that, among other things, it takes time to train new archive staff in the details of the systems at the police, replies the director. – Are you using enough resources for this? – We are now looking at whether we can organize the archive service differently to become less vulnerable, strengthen the professional environment and get more power out of the archive service, says Roald. – Does that mean spending more money, or just reorganizing? – We have strengthened the archive service with additional staff over the past year or two. So we are strengthening it further now. Then we’ll see if we get up to speed, says the director of staff in the Norwegian Police Directorate. System that breaks the law Earlier this summer, it was also mentioned in the media that the police are criticized for taking poor care of evidence in criminal cases. Investigations showed that several police districts did not have control over evidence stored on everything from CDs to memory sticks. Defense lawyer Arvid Sjødin went out in Aftenposten and said that if they didn’t do their job in taking care of the evidence, it was like “throwing evidence overboard”. Sjødin has worked on several large readmission cases such as e.g. The Baneheia case – where access to old evidence has been central. The National Archives’ inspection of several police districts showed that they did not have good enough routines, and clarified responsibility for old CDs with evidence being transferred to storage that can withstand the test of time. The police have stored a lot of evidence on burned CDs and DVDs like these. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news For recording CDs and DVDs have a limited shelf life. And responsibility across police districts and the highest body, the Directorate of Police, is also the subject of one of the orders notified against the Directorate. The control body for public archives has now revealed how the Directorate of Police has chosen to establish a common archive system for all police districts, special bodies and the Directorate itself. The archive base that has been created means that, technically and formally, there are no separate archives for each body – even if they are supposed to be independent. The national archivist believes this may be a breach of the law that regulates how documents and information are to be taken care of, the Archives Act. Therefore, they have notified an order that it must be changed. – It is an offense because the law states that the archive must tell what has happened in the proceedings. Then you must have organized the archive according to the organizational units. They have not done that, and therefore it is an offence, says national archivist Inga Bolstad. The national archivist explains that there is a risk of confusion over who is responsible for what, and who has done what in the police when they have organized their documents in this way. The police districts, for example, send a number of letters to their superior body, the Norwegian Police Directorate. – The internal order in the archives can be broken. The archive then risks being misleading in terms of proceedings and communication. It creates challenges and ambiguity about who is responsible for what, she says to news. – What do you think about the findings, and that you think it is an offence? – We must be able to expect the police not to break the law. Because if there is anyone we want to trust, it is the police. When they don’t have their own house in order and their documentation in order, it can help to weaken trust in the police as an organ, says national archivist Inga Bolstad. The Norwegian Police Directorate under Chief of Staff Ane Mannsåker Roald took part this week in a panel discussion on challenges with archives and preservation at the Digitization Conference 2022. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news Wants dialogue on offenses The Norwegian Police Directorate explains to news that what they have now received is a preliminary report. The orders listed in the report have so far been notified. They will now engage in dialogue with the supervisory body to assess how the individual findings should be viewed. The fact that the National Archives believes that the directorate is breaking the law by only having one common archive system for the entire police and sheriff’s agency is a point that will require extensive restructuring if it is to be corrected as the supervisory body wishes. Therefore, the Norwegian Police Directorate will start a dialogue, and they will not outright agree that the current situation creates a misleading image. – We believe that it is structured so that it is still possible to return the documents to the original body. So we believe we must continue the discussion with the National Archives on this, and we note, among other things, that they are open to applying for a dispensation. So it’s something we want to investigate, says director of staff Ane Mannsåker Roald in the Norwegian Police Directorate to news. – But they say you are breaking the law – what do you say to that? – It is a discussion we have had with the National Archives for a long time. The reason why we have set up our systems as we have concerns, among other things, personal protection, information security, effective work processes within the police and between police bodies, how we report to the Ministry of Justice and our opportunities to digitize work processes equally everywhere in police Norway , Roald explains. She believes there is much to be gained by having a joint system. For example, that you can then more easily ensure that all cases of weapons permits are treated exactly the same, regardless of whether you communicate with the police in Finnmark or in Southern Norway.
ttn-69
