Education and Employment
Education of police officers is the responsibility of the Norwegian Police University College, which is subordinate the National Police Directorate. The main campus is located at Majorstuen in Oslo, while the secondary campus is located at Mørkved in Bodø. In addition the college has training centers in Kongsvinger and Stavern. Police officer training is a three-year bachelor's degree, where the first and third year take place at the college and the second year is on-the-ground training in police districts. In 2009, 1990 people applied for 432 places at the college. From 2010, admission is administrated through the Norwegian Universities and Colleges Admission Service. The college also has a three-year part-time master's degree in police science. As the chief of police and deputy chief of police are part of the prosecuting authority, they must be a candidate of law to act in such a position. Although there no longer is a formal requirement for such an education, the role as prosecutor effectively hinders others from holding the position.
At the time of graduation all officers are qualified for operational service. However, each employee must undergo 40 hours of yearly training, including firearms practice, to keep their operational certification. Without this, they cannot patrol, use firearms or participate in actions. Forty-four percent of police officers in 2012 lacked such certification. The main reason is that the police districts see it as a waste of resources to train investigation and administrative staff which do not participate in operative duty, and that a higher quality is achieved through specialization of tasks, such as dedicated investigation personnel. Each police district may dictate that operational personnel have a higher amount of training, for instance 80 hours is required in Oslo. Officers are certified at five levels, of which the top four can use firearms. Level three consists of a call-out unit for each police district, consisting of a combined 646 people. This requires 103 hours of special training per year. Higher levels are required for body-guard service (55 officers) and the Emergency Response Union (73 officers). All certification curriculum is developed by and organized by the university college.
The Norwegian Police Federation is the trade union which organizes employees from all levels within the police force. The federation is a member of the Confederation of Unions for Professionals, Norway and the European Confederation of Police. It is illegal for police officers to strike. The federation have nonetheless undertaken several actions, including collective sick leave to close a police station and by members sabotaging courses by not participating. Reports of misconduct and criminal offenses by officers during duty is investigated by the Norwegian Bureau for the Investigation of Police Affairs. Based in Hamar, it is directly subordinate the Ministry of Justice and the Police and is not part of the Norwegian Police Service.
Read more about this topic: Norwegian Police Service
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