Organised Crime & Crime Prevention - what works? - Scandinavian ...

NSfK´s 40. forskerseminar, Espoo, Finland 1998
Karl Steinar Valsson, Superintendent
Reykjavik Police
Hverfisgötu 115, IS-150 Reykjavik
e-mail: karlsteinar@police.is
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Crime Prevention in Iceland
In contrast to the other Nordic countries, in Iceland there is no central organisation whose task
is to prevent crime. Recently the Minestry of Health has establish a separate committee,
Icelands´s Council for the prevention of the use of drugs. Still there is a willing to put forward
a proposal for a Committee covering all forms of crime prevention.
In 1988 a separate department was established under the Chief of Police in Reykjavík. The
main intention was that the department was to take care of public relation and crime
prevention work. Since then this deparment has increased in size and judies. Currently 11
officers and one sociologist are working for the department. The ideology behind the job is
community policing in a broad perspective. The department has put forward many different
programs in schools, for parents and others in different fields of crime prevention.
The focus on crime prevention has for a long time often been on particular types of crime, but
not all known criminal activities. In my piont of view there is a need of change here, having
the officers looking at the preventional part of all crimes they are handling. What I have in
mind is that an officer takes into consideration when he is investigating a case how that
particular activity could be prevented. By doing this we would have much more active work
in this field and hopefully better results.
In Iceland there are also many other groups and agencies that work in the field of crime
prevention. Most of them focus on the narcodic field but some having broader view. The City
of Reykjavík is participating with the ECAD organisation (European Cities of Drugs) on a
project to fight against drug use in Iceland.