It hailed with comments after the Active Training Center in Ålesund posted on Instagram that they had a visit from the police. Several in the comments field think the police are not allowed to just show up with a drug dog. The law professor also agrees. – What the police do is a gross violation of the Criminal Procedure Act and a violation of human rights. It should have consequences for the police victory, Hans Fredrik Marthinussen, who is a law professor at the University of Bergen. The police, together with what they call a search dog, were to carry out an environmental training at the fitness center. That is, the dog should practice looking for illegal drugs. Therefore, according to Hans Fredrik Marthinussen, It is illegal According to Hans Fredrik Marthinussen, professor of law at UIB, what the police did was illegal: The Constitution § 102 gives us protection of our privacy. A similar protection follows from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, Article 113 of the Constitution requires that the public, here the police, must have a legal basis for intervening against citizens. There is no doubt that searching for persons and their belongings with a drug dog is in Norwegian law to be regarded as a search. This was established by the Attorney General already in the 1990s, and it has been so ever since. Search shall not take place without legal authority, and the legal provisions in the Criminal Procedure Act (§ 192 for property, § 195 for persons) require a fairly strong suspicion of a criminal offense for the search to be carried out (“scolding reason for suspicion”). When the police allow dogs to search for persons and their belongings at a fitness center, this is a completely public violation of all these rules. In accordance with the much-discussed circular from the Attorney General on searches in drug cases of 9 April 2021, there is also normally a criminal misconduct on the part of the police (Penal Code §§ 171 and 172). A fitness center can give consent to practice on the premises, for example when it is not open and no one trains there, but the fitness center can of course not give the police permission to violate those who train where their constitutional parties correct or give permission for the police to search them center beyond the framework provided by the Criminal Procedure Act. The problem, according to the professor, is that the police train with a dog when the fitness center is open. He reacts in particular to whether the police had actually made a discovery on one of those who were at the fitness center. – It is not the case that if they had come across a doping substance on a person, the police would have said “Oh yes, it was good training for the dog. Good luck”. He also points out that this is the case at schools and in cage clubs where the police have carried out such a search, but that this has turned out not to be within the law. If it was legal The police say the environmental training was by agreement with the training center Active training at Blindheim, this is also confirmed by the daily camper, David Andersen. They had also made an agreement with markers to be present when the dog practiced, in addition to the members of the training center being able to train as normal. The police station chief in Ålesund, Oddbjørn Solheim, points out that this is a training that does not go on random people. – It is a controlled training, and an agreement was made with markers. – Can the fitness center say yes on behalf of the customers? – It is difficult for the police to answer this question, as the fitness center has a subscription agreement with its customers. THE POLICE: Chief of Police Station, Oddbjørn Solheim, thinks the training they carried out at the training center was legal. Photo: Alf-Jørgen Tyssing / news Solheim also says that dog handlers control the dog, and if it should have marked one of those who were not part of the training, then dog handlers could have steered the dog away from this. He emphasizes that this was an ordinary training, the police were not there to uncover criminal offenses. – This should be regulated, and we should not put people in an undesirable situation. This is not Marthinussen’s samd in. He thinks if the police should have had an exercise at a fitness center, then it must be after closing time, when there are no customers there. – Then there must be a strong suspicion of specific persons. This is openly illegal use of coercive measures, says Marthinussen. Solheim does not agree with that statement. At the same time, he is clear that they will bring learning from this episode. – We could have been in the west, together with the dog, where it is clear that we were training. And the owner may also have announced in advance that it was voluntary for people to come in to train with knowledge that the police had a dog training, he says. Cooperation with the police The police have carried out a similar environmental training at the fitness center before, where bait is laid out for the dog, which he sniffs for. The tenant of the fitness center says he does not fully understand why someone reacts so strongly to this. – We want to have a preventive and safe plan, and we inform the members who are at the center. We have received positive feedback from our members, while someone outside has received negative reviews, says Andersen. Active training Blindheim. Photo: Maria Kristina Vevang / news Sporhunden also stopped by a cloakroom and the shower, but according to Andersen there were no people in the shower. He adds that members who find it uncomfortable can step aside or choose not to be in the area when the police are there.
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My police broke the law when they showed up with a drug dog
