Iceland’s justice minister defends plan to merge police districts

Iceland’s justice minister, Þorbjörg Sigríður Gunnlaugsdóttir, says the police need greater capacity to respond to major changes in crime over the past decade. She is defending a proposal to merge the country’s nine police districts into three, according to mbl.is.

The proposal is still being prepared at the ministry, and Gunnlaugsdóttir plans to take it to parliament this autumn. Each of the existing districts is led by an independent police chief.

Gunnlaugsdóttir said she had travelled around the country and discussed possible mergers with police officers. She said the National Association of Police Officers and the Association of Police Chiefs support the changes, although views vary between regions and some local authorities have raised concerns.

She said the government had also strengthened policing by increasing police numbers, taking measures on prisons, deporting foreign criminals and preparing a bill targeting organised crime. But she said reorganising the police would not, by itself, solve the problem.

Smaller regional districts face the same legal requirements as larger ones but have fewer resources, she said. The proposed mergers would create larger forces better equipped to manage their responsibilities. “I take this political responsibility,” she said.