The Icelandic police force has run out of uniforms and no new ones are expected to be available for purchase for months, reports visir.is.
Jónas Ingi Pétursson, Director of Finance and IT for the National Police Force, claims that since uniforms cost 176 thousand króna ($1,666), or less than a months rent in Reykjavík, they are struggling to meet costs.
Financially strapped police
Snorri Magnússon, head of the Policefederation of Iceland, claims that it is unfortunate that no extra uniforms are available, and that the matter had not been dealt with sooner. He points out that summer employees will be entering the police force soon, and without new uniforms they will need to share with other officers. We can only hope that the summer cops shower regularly.
Snorri has previously been highly critical of authorities for financially starving the police force, arguing that the government has been ignorant about the state of the force for years.
Due to a lack of funding, the number of police officers decreased by 10% between 2000 and 2014 and the number of police cars dropped by 12% during the same period. The weakening of the police force has happened at the same time that the workload has increased substantially due to the growing number of tourists in the country.
The Grapevine has heard completely unsubstantiated rumours suggesting taht the police have started production on a scantily clad calendar to raise money and awareness of their troubles.
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