Police and young people


Johan Leman, 4 October 2021

Recently I had two visitors, Mr Sylo Taraku and Mrs Vibeke Rachline, both from Norway. Sylo Taraku is of Kosovar origin, has Norwegian nationality and, as a member of the centre-left think tank Tankesmien Agenda, is currently advising the current  Norvegian centre-left government on youth-police relations. Ms. Vibeke Rachline is also Norwegian, a correspondent of some important Norwegian newspapers and a writer. She lives in Paris. Her first remark when we start our conversation is: “When we walk in Brussels, we don’t see the police in the street, but we do see police cars… and sometimes such a car stops, two policemen come out, speak to a young person and one immediately notices the distrust in the young person(s)’s eyes. This is by no means the case in Oslo. What is going on here?”

When I ask how it happens in Oslo, they tell me that an important part of the police in Oslo is on the streets, a proximity police. They talk to people and let people talk to them, without talking about problems… conversations about anything and everything. And the police are unarmed. The weapons are in the car. It also means that they can ask some young people where they got e.g. some brand clothing, when they are wearing them and the police know perfectly well that they normally don’t have the money. Police training lasts three years. In research on the trust people have in institutions, the police score very high. Coincidentally, shortly afterwards I recorded a podcast of Mrs Moureaux, the mayor of Molenbeek. I referred her to the remark of the two Norwegian visitors. She agreed with the Norwegians. “Yes, a proximity police is essential. But in Molenbeek alone, there are about 100 police officers too few, as she has already told the previous Minister of the Interior. And you should know that the frame itself in Molenbeek is inadequate compared with other municipalities. In other words, the frame for Molenbeek is too limited and, within this more limited frame, around 100 police officers are missing.”

In other words, if a Minister of the Interior wants to improve the relationship between the police and young people, the first condition is to fill out the frame properly so that there is room to create a proximity police made up of people who are well-trained, who walk the streets unarmed, who have learned to deal with young people and who do not leave the commune immediately but stay.

All other initiatives are fine, desirable for want of better… but will fall short.

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