The largest cities with the most residents have been chosen as the new hubs for merged police districts around Norway. Over the next few years, Norway’s 27 police districts will be reduced to 12, to improve efficiency and cut costs.
Oslo has won out over Sandvika as the base for the merged Oslo and Asker og Bærum districts. In Northern Norway, Tromsø beat out Harstad, while Trondheim will be the base in Trøndelag. Bergen beat out Florø on the West Coast.
Some of the choices are likely to be contested, reports news bureau NTB. For the new merged district in southeast Norway, for example, Sarpsborg in the far south beat out Ski and Lillestrøm farther north. Sarpsborg, however, was viewed as having better office space available to house both an operations center and police administration.
Hamar, meanwhile, beat out Gjøvik and Lillehammer in the Oppland-Hedmark area because it’s closer to various other public agencies it needs to work with. On the northwest coast, Kristiansund lost out to Ålesund, which was viewed as having better recruiting possibilities and a more accessible location for the new Møre og Romsdal police district. Drammen was chosen as the hub for the new police district serving much of Vestfold and Buskerud counties.
newsinenglish.no staff
