Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 50

48 ICELAND REVIEW
PoLiCe
Þórir attributes the success of the project
to several things including that Iceland has
one of the highest internet penetration
rates in the world and over 222,000 regis-
tered Facebook accounts. another factor,
he said, was that the Icelandic police “have
always been an unarmed police force, one of
the very few in the world, living in a small
society; having a good relationship with the
public being of utmost importance.”
There are approximately 600 police offi-
cers in Iceland, 300 of whom work in the
capital area, which has a population of
around 220,000. Officers working in the
field are encouraged to posts on topics
related to their daily work, especially the
brighter sides of police work as well as
make announcements (they even announce
which streets they will be monitoring for
speeding). according to a statement pub-
lished in relation with the ConnectedCops
award, the Reykjavík Metropolitan police
“is finding that social media is both a cost-
effective way of community policing but is
also turning out to be one of the key points
into building trust between the police and
the public.”
keePing UP aPPearanceS
apart from Facebook, the Reykjavík police
also use Twitter, youTube, Instagram,
pintrest and Flickr. Their Instagram
account has gone viral and they now have
115,000 followers from Russia to Chile
and Malaysia to australia, thanks to their
humorous status updates and cute and cud-
dly images featuring police officers eating
candy floss and ice-cream, skateboarding,
working out and playing with kittens. The
police now have a total reach of about
200,000 people, roughly the same number
of people in their jurisdiction, and around
49 percent of people contacting the police
now do so directly via Facebook. In July,
Þórir said that the police were receiving
around 300 Facebook messages per month
with tip-offs about crimes and also ques-
tions. Social media, he said, had allowed
them to reach many more people than ever
before.
In a TEDx Talk Þórir gave in July, he
explained why he felt people wanted to
be friends with the police on Facebook. “I
think most people realize that policing is
not just the police’s job. It is a matter for
us all ... We like to keep our communities
safe and that’s why people love having the
police there, being able to have that con-
versation in real time with the police ... But
I also think it has to do with the manner
that we’re sending out our messages and
using humor has always been a strong part
in how we get our messages across,” he said.
Þórir also explained that social media
had helped the police attempt to bridge the
gap between acting tough and building up
a good rapport with the public. “We want
to be able to talk to the police, we want the
police to be there, we want to be able to
communicate with the police, but we also
want the police to be tough on crime, and
especially on other people’s crimes ... but
it’s sometimes a little bit hard getting all
of these things to work together to create
an environment where people are actually
happy with the police and that’s where I
think social media fits in.”
police officer Birgir Örn Guðjónsson,
known colloquially as ‘Biggi lögga’ (‘Biggi
the cop’) for his humorous youTube vid-
eos, weighed in on the gun issue via his
personal Facebook page. He explained that
the idea that police in Iceland would start
carrying guns had never been discussed.
He criticized the nature of the debate but
added that “the world is shrinking and our
little country is part of it, whether we like
it or not.” He emphasized that he and his
colleagues sometimes work in very difficult
situations and occasionally deal with people
who bear weapons. He stressed, however,
that “no one amongst us wants to use a fire-
arm against another person.” When asked
about the gun affair, Þórir says he hasn’t
noticed any changes in the police’s com-
munication with the public following but
emphasizes that there have been no policy
changes, general police officers would not
start carrying guns and that they still have
“a very close relationship with the public.”
Now that the guns are out of the way—at
least for now—the police can return to
building their image as a neighborhood
friend to the public. *
the reykjavík Metropolitan Police's instagram account has gone viral thanks to their humorous status updates and cute and cuddly images featuring police
officers playing with kittens, doing kickflips and eating candy floss.