This summer, preparations began to establish an internal surveillance office to oversee and investigate Police forces, Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson announced today. According to RÚV, he said that the bureau would operate under the Interior Ministry, with a similar level of independence as prosecutors.
This came in response to an inquiry made by Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, the Pirate Party’s member of Alþingi.
The Police forces and related institutions have been under public scrutiny on several occasions, during the last months. Recent Police scandals include allegedly brutalising an immigrant, failing to keep identities of civilians in their reports confidential, and secretly, or in any case very quietly, amassing arsenal. Late August, former Police Chief issued statements to Alþingi’s ombudsman, about the pressures which Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, Minister of the Interior, exerted on the Police, during a Police investigation of the Ministry.
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