A senior Norwegian police officer has warned that light sentencing and ineffective laws are encouraging foreign criminals to operate in the country. Oslo’s police boss says that the foreign criminals manage to dodge the long arm of the law and rarely face punishment for their crimes.
Hans Sverre Sjøvold stated that in the case of drug-dealers, they are able to avoid being caught in possession by hiding their stash in a nearby hidey-hole. When a buyer approaches the dealers are then quickly able to retrieve the drugs and make the sale.
The police chief continued by saying a high proportion of the dealers and other criminals were of foreign extraction. Statistics released by Oslo prosecutors seem to back up the claim and reveal that in the locality of Grønland a full 60 per cent of those arrested by officers were foreign. The city says the arrested people often have no link to Norway and simply happen to be here.
Sjøvold claimed many of these foreign criminals should not legally be in the country, or lived in immigration asylums. He continued by saying that light penalties for crimes and the issue of incarcerating foreigners for petty crimes was a major headache for Oslo police.
He finished off by stating many of the lawbreakers had already worked out that the city could not punish them for their misdemeanours. City authorities say that even when the criminals are fined they often do not know the real name of the perpetrator.