Editorial

Police reform seems to be the order of the day in Northern and Western Europe, most often in the form of centralization and amalgamation of districts. The Nordic countries follow suit, based on many of the same reasons as in other parts of Europe: Crime is getting more organized and sophisticated, the police must professionalize in order to combat it, and the police must be made more efficient through rationalization.

The idea for the present special issue of Nordisk Politiforskning originates from a working group meeting that took place in Stockholm a few years back, sponsored by the Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology. At the time, limited research on the Nordic police reforms had been conducted, and the meeting aimed to inspire such research.

This issue of Nordisk Politiforskning looks at Scandinavian police reforms and other changes from very different angles.

The contribution by Björn Furuhagen offers an interesting take on the historical pretext to the current reforms. Furuhagen argues that centralization (historically in the form of nationalization of municipal police forces) is not a new thing in Scandinavian policing; rather, it has been an ongoing process, partly driven by societal changes including increased citizen mobility, political unrest

Rolf Granér offers a review of Nordic police literature relevant to the issue of police reform. A substantial part of what is written about Nordic police reforms is written in the Nordic languages, making it difficult for an international audience to follow the developments in this part of the world. We hope this review will make it possible for the interested reader to gain an understanding of what is happening with Nordic police reform – and Nordic police reform research.

Adam Diderichsen dissects the short-lived attempt to professionalize the Danish police training in the form of a bachelor’s degree program. This educational reform was part of the Danish Police reform of 2007, and the paper details how difficult it was to reconcile the interests of different stakeholders in the process of redesigning the training. Diderichsen writes from a rather unique vantage point, in that he worked at the police academy and played a central role in the efforts to transform police training. He demonstrates how the fate of the bachelor’s program was determined by ‘decoupling’ from its original goals and argues that a recent reshaping of the police training into a two-year program may indicate the abandonment of increased professionalism.

In Scandinavia, the centralization component of the reforms has been somewhat hidden. Reforms in Denmark and Sweden have been promoted as actually strengthening local policing, and, as described by Paul Larsson in this issue, the Norwegian reform was renamed “community policing reform” even though the concept of community policing was not part of the reform plans at all. Larsson takes a closer look at the way core principles of Norwegian policing such as closeness to communities and crime prevention before enforcement have either been abandoned or given new meanings – most often in the form of increased formalization. If the Norwegian reform is indeed a community policing reform, it represents a very different idea of community policing than envisioned in Norway 35 years ago.

In their study of how the Norwegian police handle cases of police misconduct that border upon, but are not prosecuted as, criminal offences, Hoel and Bjørkelo show how difficult it is for the police organization to learn from experience and reform its own practice. Police executives tend to focus narrowly on the characteristics of the individual cases instead of taking a broader view of whether police practice should be changed. Thus, they miss an opportunity for institutional learning and change.

The editors hope that the present issue will inspire more research into police reform and other organizational changes in the police. Given the large-scale changes that are under way in Nordic policing, the most apt conclusion to this introduction must be: More research is needed!