Minister of Justice summoned to appear before Parliament.

A growing number of police officers in Norway are refusing to work overtime and as a result they aren’t able to carry out their duties in a satisfactory manner. This has prompted members from the Norwegian Parliament to summoned Minister of Justice, Knut Storberget of the Labour Party to appear before Parliament and explain the situation.

It was representatives from Høyre (The Conservatives) that finally decided to take action.

- We have decided to summon the Minister of Justice, and he will have to appear before the Parliament tomorrow and explain why the police aren’t able to carry out their duties, Chairman of Høyre, Erna Solberg told NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation).

- This lack of police officers on duty is especially noticeable in the bigger cities, and it is unacceptable, Solberg says.

Several positions are unfilled in the various police precincts, and the local police officers are refusing to work overtime until they receive a significant pay rise. Erna Solberg insists that it is the Minister of Justice’s responsibility to ensure that there are enough police officers on duty at any given time.

Storberget recently announced that the Oslo Police Department’s budget have been increased by nearly NOK 500 million since 2000, but in the same period only 80 new positions have been created. He made it clear that he wanted more police officers for the money.

Norwegian TV channel, TV2, reported last Monday that there were only 7 police officers on duty at the Oslo City Police Station last weekend, and that 65 incidents weren’t properly investigated.

Source: Stavangeravisen.com