Police reported after drug report

On Sunday, the special unit for police cases received a report from the Oslo police district for breach of confidentiality.

The background was it harshly criticized the Twitter message about a drug review after a dry-cooking emergency at a named address in Oslo on Sunday.

Professor of Law at UiB, Hans Fredrik Marthinussen, said to Dagbladet on Monday that the police here violate the duty of confidentiality, as they name the street address for the dry cooking, and then report the drug discovery.

Can be punished with imprisonment

The review for the Bureau was delivered by Bengt Erik Waldow. He is a lawyer and usually very involved in drug policy.

He believes the apartment the drug seizure was made in is easily identifiable.

– The broadcast involves a blatant breach of the duty of confidentiality and at least a grossly negligent act of service according to Section 172 of the Penal Code is punishable, Waldow told Dagbladet.

Seriously negligent misconduct, may according to the said paragraphpunishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to one year.

– It is the broadcast of the seizure I react to. The police put people in a gallows – people who are innocent until proven guilty. The occupant of the apartment is easily identifiable to both neighbors and others.

Oslo police are punished for drug reporting

Denies breach of confidentiality

The special unit does not have the opportunity to confirm or deny reviews submitted by private individuals, they state. Dagbladet has nevertheless seen the confirmation that Waldow received after contacting the Bureau of Investigation.

Tor Grøttum at the Operations Center in the Oslo police district was operations manager on Sunday, and published the aforementioned report. On Monday, he stated to Dagbladet that he believes that the report neither violates the police’s internal guidelines, nor violates the duty of confidentiality.

– The Oslo Police District takes note that the case has been reported, and will not comment on this beyond that, Grøttum said on Wednesday, after receiving the news of the report.

Believes the police director must go: – No credibility

Will lower the threshold

Lawyer Waldow shared a screenshot of the submitted review Twitter. The review has a very informal character. It is, among other things, signed Waldow, «lawyer / loser / taxpayer / former and future lawyer»

Waldow explains that he did this deliberately, to emphasize that anyone can report what he refers to as “trampling”.

If we are to have hope for change, people must report abuse to themselves and others to the Bureau of Investigation. By writing a report in this way, I hope to lower people’s threshold for reporting abuse by the police. You do not have to be a law professor, or even write very formally or legally correct. As long as you find out what the review is about, it is more than sufficient, he explains.

Responds to secrecy: – Scary

– Can cost lives

Both politicians and lawyers have reacted to the fact that the drug report on Sunday was apparently made after an emergency call. Research shows that people refuse to contact the emergency services for help, if they are involved in illegal drugs.

Thus, the Oslo police’s drug report on Sunday, and the broadcast of it, can scare even more people from asking for help, the critics believe.

Waldow agrees with this criticism.

– This practice costs lives. People must at least contact the fire service without being afraid that the drug police will come. Do you want your drug-addicted neighbor to let the block burn down with you inside because he’s afraid to call the fire department ?, Waldow asks.

He believes that this criticism is legitimate, even though in the case in question there was a direct connection between the fire and the drugs.

– It is unwise and life-threatening to scare people from calling the fire service, he says.

The Oslo police have confirmed to Dagbladet that in the current case it was neighbors who reported dry cooking.

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