The revelations about sexual harassment and unwanted behavior by the police has caused several to react, among them Police Director Benedicte Bjørnland
The study, which was conducted by Professor Dag Ellingsen at the Norwegian Police University College and Professor Ulla-Britt Lilleaas at the Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, is about gender and diversity in security organizations in general, not just in the police.
They have mainly looked at the operational parts of the police. The research project will be completed in 2021. Previously, the researchers have presented results from the West Police District.
The emergency unit (UEH) in the West police district is among those who have received criticism in the new study. The police district was also criticized for culture in 2018.
Worried about «fuck-thursday»
Security at notice
– Many of the findings they made in 2018 are in the same category as what has emerged today, says Kaare Songstad, chief of police in the West police district, to Dagbladet.
Both before and after the research in 2018, the police district has worked actively with the safety of employees by notification, among other things through the use of an internal investigation group, according to Songstad.
– We took the opportunity to go out and encourage our own employees to bring that kind of story to us because we wanted to highlight that we wanted to know about what happened, he says.
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Unsafe to say
– Has there been a culture of silence with you before?
– I think the word silence culture is too broad, but as our research group pointed out, many have perceived it as problematic and unsafe to say about such things, he says.
Songstad believes that the problem exists throughout police Norway.
– Particularly related to how men in positions of power interact with women in various settings, both professionally and privately.
It is a known phenomenon that many of these operational cultures have challenges in this field, Songstad believes.
– Unacceptable!
Traditional male culture
Professor Ulla-Britt Lilleaas, who is behind the research project together with Dag Ellingsen, highlights the skewed gender distribution as one of the reasons for the culture.
– It has traditionally been a male culture, and when women want to enter, it can feel threatening for men, Lilleaas says to Dagbladet.
Kaare Songstad agrees that an uneven gender balance can contribute to culture. The emergency unit (UEH) in the West police district is among the units in the agency with a low proportion of women.
– An imbalance between the number of people of different sexes can do something with the power relationship. That is why it is so important that we work actively with the recruitment of more women to the operational environments in the police, says Sognstad.
“Sorry, thought we had a desk”
“Fuck-Thursday”
In a press release on the police website, police director Benedicte Bjørnland says that when she was presented with the results, she heard about abuse of position to achieve sexual acts in exchange for favorable guards or good references.
– I heard about party culture – and about the so-called “fuck-Thursday” at B3 camp (Bachelor police education – operational training during camp stays in the third year). Instructors ordered to teach camp must have had sexual intercourse with female students. This upsets me, says Bjørnland.
She emphasizes that the fact that instructors have had intimate relationships with students in a setting where power, authority and power relations are obviously skewed, is unacceptable and contrary to the agency’s values.
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