Icelandic Police
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The Icelandic Police can trace its origins to 1778, when the first traces of industry started to appear. In the times before that law had been enforced by individuals as allowed by Alþingi and later by sýslumenn (sheriffs) and other Royal proxies.
The first Icelandic policemen are considered to be the morningstar armed nightwatchmen of Reykjavík who were commissioned primarily to deter prisoners, housed in the Reykjavik prison, from breaking into the Innréttingarnar.
In 1803 the first proper policemen were commissioned in Reykjavík as it became a free town or kaupstaður. The first police chief was Rasmus Frydensberg, the town mayor, who hired two former soldiers, Ole Biørn and Vilhelm Nolte, as the first policemen.
It was not until shortly after 1891 that policemen were hired in most of the other areas of Iceland.
In 1933 Alþingi passed the Police act which provided state participation in financing of police forces. This was done mostly in response to the threat of a communist revolution, whose capabilities had become appearent in violent attempt to force the decicions of the Reykjavik city council, where a large part of the police forces went out of action as a result of physical injury. The act also authorized the Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical affairs to call out reserves in critical situations.
In 1939 prime minister Hermann Jónasson hired Agnar Kofoed-Hansen as police chief. Agnar had received officer training in the Danish army and proceeded to give the police military training. Considerable amounts of weapons were purchased from abroad as well, including revolvers and sub-machine guns. It was also planned to train the police reserves and thus create some sort of military defence forces, but this was cut short when the United Kingdom invaded Iceland in 1940.
In 1972 the state took over command of law enforcement in Iceland, creating the National Police and in 1977 State Criminal Investigation Police started operations under a special Director. The State Investigation Police took over investigations of criminal activities that previously were under the control of the Reykjavík Criminal Court and police commissioners in the Greater Reykjavík area.
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[edit] Current Organization
The Icelandic Police is under the surpreme command of the Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical affairs and the National Commissioner administers the police under autorization of the Minister. There is one exception as the the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is also the Defence minister, is responsible for the police at Keflavík International Airport as it is a military NATO base.
[edit] The National Commissioner
The office of the National Commissioner was put into service in 1997, when the Police Act from 1987, which stipulated its creation, came into effect. The State Criminal Investigative Police was abolished and its duties transferred to the National Commissioner and local police departments.
[edit] Weaponry
Although Icelandic policemen carry only extendable batons and MK-4 OC-spray (pepper spray) while on duty, they are trained in the use of firearms. The police at Keflavík International Airport are an exception, as police academy graduates carry firearms at all times, although temporarily employed officers do not. The standard sidearm is the Glock 17, but some officers purchase guns of different types. Competition shooting with handguns is common within the Icelandic Police. In addition to the above, they have in the police vehicles longer batons, full riot gear and spikestrips, for example.
The Special Operations Unit of the National Commissioner deployed in situations requiring greater skill or firepower than the general police officers have available.
[edit] The Secret Service
At the orders of the prime minister Hermann Jónasson in 1939 the State Police and the Útlendingaeftirlitið (Foreigner monitoring agency) founded a Security department or eftirgrennslanadeild. This service was founded primarily to monitor Nazi German scientists in Iceland as well as communists. After World War II this service had the embassies of communist countries under surveillance and compiled lists of communist sympathizers and potential sabotaurs or terrorists. It was not until 2006 that this service came into light, after having been known to only a handful of men for more than 60 years, when historians were granted limited access to secret documents.
