Between 2011 and March 2021, the Norwegian Police Directorate and underlying companies paid NOK 2,881,298 to the Norwegian Narcotics Police Association (NNPF) and their local branch.
NNPF has around 3600 members from, among others, the police, customs, the prosecution, the prison service and the Armed Forces, according to their websites. Here they refer to themselves as a non-profit organization, which is run on a voluntary basis and offers professional replenishment to its members in topics such as “drugs, prevention, intelligence and the fight against organized crime”.
A total of NOK 2,211,890 was received by the organization directly from the directorate. Most of these amounts – the largest of them at NOK 400,000 – are listed as “grants on application” for NNPF’s annual education conference.
A single amount in 2016 is listed as “Gift in connection with NNPF’s 25th anniversary”. Other smaller amounts have, among other things, gone to teaching materials and registrations for conferences, according to NNPF.
Takes netness to the Storting
– Mix
The figures appear in documents handed out by the Police Directorate following requests for access from Jonas Ali Ghanizadeh, with whom Dagbladet has been in contact.
The Police Directorate confirms to Dagbladet that the document is authentic and the overview correct.
Ghanizadeh is a support member of the Safer Drug Policy Association, which has supported the government’s drug reform. He first made the numbers available via Twitter. The online newspaper discussed the matter first.
The payments provoke strong reactions.
– I react very strongly to this. But I’m not surprised. It joins the ranks of a conspiracy between the police and the NNPF that is distasteful, because the NNPF has taken on a role in Norwegian drug policy that is completely out of step, both with the future and with the government’s attitude.
Carl-Erik Grimstad (V), parliamentary representative and member of the health and care committee, tells Dagbladet.
– It is in direct conflict with the current government’s view of drug policy.
NNPF rejects the criticism. Read their full answer further down in the case.
view more
–
Both Police Directorate and NNPF has through consultation statements and press releases opposed the government’s drug reform. The reform was not successful. Only a few relaxations in the drug legislation were passed in the Storting on Thursday last week.
The Norwegian Police Directorate denies that they have given support to NNPF’s drug policy activities.
Huge seizures in a secret police operation
POD: No operating allowance
However, they confirm that NNPF received a gift of 100,000 kroner from the directorate in 2016.
– This was handed over by former police director Odd Reidar Humlegård during the annual education conference. The gift is to be regarded as a one-time event and was given in connection with NNPF’s 25th anniversary, writes department director Bjørn Vandvik in the Police Department in the Police Directorate in an e-mail to Dagbladet.
The justification stated the following, according to Vandvik:
«NNPF has an important role in disseminating knowledge and raising competence in the prevention and combating of drug and doping crime. The education conference has for many years been a unique meeting place across control agencies, police districts and special bodies. “
– Since its establishment in 2001, the Norwegian Police Directorate has never given an operating grant to NNPF. On the other hand, support has been given for the implementation of an individual measure – the annual education conference under the auspices of NNPF, Vandvik writes further.
Police may have searched people illegally for “all years”
Support for more
NNPF has also received support for this measure from cooperating agencies, according to Vandvik.
– The background for the support from POD is that it has been considered a relevant competence-enhancing measure for employees in the police. With regard to the payments in the overview from police districts and special bodies, these are mainly payments for participation in conferences, courses, publications, and so on.
ANSWER: Department director Bjørn Vandvik in the Police subject department in the Police Directorate. Photo: Ørn E. Borgen / NTB
view more
Among these special bodies we find, among others, Kripos and the Police Academy. NNPF is also not alone in having received payments from the Norwegian Police Directorate.
– Support has been given to individual measures under the auspices of other organizations. An example is the annual conference organized by the Police Crime Prevention Forum (PKF).
This conference has at times been arranged in collaboration with the Police Directorate and the Secretariat for the Conflict Councils, and previously the Crime Prevention Council (KRÅD), Vandvik explains.
– Examples of support for measures from other organizations include the Norwegian Police Dog Association and the Norwegian Environmental Police Association.
– Bjørnland must go
– Fights the public
Carl-Erik Grimstad has previously been critical of the association’s alleged use of police addresses and telephone numbers as contact information, and believes NNPF’s members may have appeared as police in service when they have represented the association.
He has previously asked questions about the use of address to Minister of Justice and Emergency Management Monica Mæland (H) in The Storting.
– NNPF must be allowed to think what they want, but it must be done without a uniform, and outside the police premises. And the association will not receive funds from the public sector to fight the public sector, he tells Dagbladet.
ANSWER: Chairman of the board Jan Erik Bresil of the Norwegian Narcotics Police Association. Photo: NNPF
view more
Chairman of the board Jan Erik Bresil in NNPF strongly rejects this criticism in an e-mail to Dagbladet. He works daily as a police superintendent.
– NNPF works actively to prevent role confusion with the police. Uniform means that you represent the police force and should not be used when representing the association. There should be no doubt about who is the sender and partner, he writes.
He writes that NNPF has its own website, logo and graphic profile, as well as its own clothes and e-mail addresses, precisely to avoid role landing.
– This has been a continuous process that started long before Grimstad asked questions to the Minister of Justice.
– Much worse than the Nav scandal
– Should be refunded
Grimstad is in no doubt about what he thinks should happen:
– The funds should be repaid. There is nothing else to say about it. Is there anyone who can say with their hand on their heart that they believe that the Police Directorate would have supported LEAP Scandinavia (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, red.anm.) with the corresponding amount? Far from. And that is the touchstone. It is the litmus test itself, he says.
Grimstad emphasizes that he distinguishes between the sums that come directly from the directorate and those that come from the individual districts, and that he does not expect the police director to have an overview of the latter.
– Getting cleaned up in things like this is very important. I am very sorry for the decision that was made on Thursday. Part of the reason for this is that salaried employees have used state funds to advance their personal views in the debate. It is very sad, says Grimstad.
Brazil in NNPF strikes back at criticism:
– That interest groups receive public support for conducting political advocacy work is uncontroversial and completely legitimate. This applies to all organizations in the field of intoxicants, including those who disagree with the government’s policy, he answers, and continues:
– It is a fundamental part of democracy that those who do not support current policies are also heard. It is surprising that Grimstad tries to make political opponents suspicious in this way.
The Police Directorate responds to Grimstad’s criticism as follows:
– As the support from the Police Directorate is limited to the education conference, it will not be correct to present it as if the directorate has given support to NNPF’s drug policy activities in general.
– Drug addicts have been the lowest priority
– Professional input
Brazil writes that the NNPF has supported a reform in the field of intoxicants for a long time – but not the specific model the government ended up presenting. He emphasizes that the organization’s most important purpose is voluntary preventive work, as well as skills development for members.
– We therefore arrange every year a large education conference with several hundred participants. Here, professional replenishment is given from invited speakers from home and abroad. Like other organizations, we have applied for support from POD and others to conduct this conference.
This is to keep the participation fee as low as possible, as most of the participants have to pay all or part of the amount themselves, according to Bresil. He emphasizes that NNPF does not receive support for operations from the police.
– We get that from the Norwegian Directorate of Health, as do very many organizations in the field of intoxicants.
The smaller amounts apply to overall registrations for conferences, as well as teaching materials, according to Brazil.
– Some local teams also apply for support from various actors to send their local members to competence-enhancing events.
–
