Oslo Crime Clearance Rates Plummet to Record Lows
Alarming Figures for Oslo:
Police are solving a steadily decreasing proportion of reported crimes. – Creates lawlessness, says Høyre.
Last year’s clearance rate was 39 percent. You have to go back to 2010 at least to find worse figures.
In 2016, the police were reorganized under the so-called “near-police reform”. Since then, the proportion of solved crimes has fallen by a full 14 percentage points.
Mari Holm Lønseth, justice policy spokesperson for Høyre (the Conservative Party), reacts strongly.
– The proportion of solved crimes has decreased significantly in just a few years. This represents unacceptable. The government is now responsible for a possible crisis of confidence in the Norwegian police, says Lønseth to Dagbladet.
See Justice Minister Astri Aas-Hanssen’s response further down in the article.
The proportion of solved crimes has declined steadily in recent years. In 2022, 44 percent were solved. In 2023, 42 percent, and in 2024, 40 percent.
Politiforum was the first to report the figures.
Criticism of the Office of the Auditor General
The situation is worst in Oslo, where only 33 percent of cases were solved last year.
– That means that 2/3 of all cases in that district with the most crime are not solved, points out Lønseth.
Oslo Police Chief, Ida Melbo Øystese, warned before Christmas about a dramatic development in crime, which means that the police have less time to prioritize everyday crime.
– The police chief in Oslo said that the police may not have time to come if the car is stolen. That is a type of crime that I think feels very intrusive for those who are affected. One may only contact the police once in a lifetime, says Lønseth.
The Office of the Auditor General criticized the police for falling numbers of solved crimes already in a report in 2022. At that time, the clearance rate was five percentage points better than it is today.
“People are losing trust”
Last year, over 30,000 cases were dropped with the reason “lack of capacity”. In over half of the cases, a suspect was registered in the case.
This is more than a doubling since 2021, when 13,561 cases were dropped due to lack of capacity.
– Then some warning lights must come on. There is a risk that people will lose confidence in the police and the legal system, says Lønseth.
This summer, TV 2 wrote about an internal instruction that was sent out in the Oslo Police in 2022. It included that the police should drop property crimes with an unknown perpetrator, and fraud on the internet under NOK 500,000.
– NOK 500,000 is a lot of money for the person affected. And it is a lot of money for criminals to pocket, says Lønseth.
Increased staffing
The Police’s resource analysis for 2024 shows that staffing in the police has increased significantly in recent years: At the end of 2024, there were 18,372 full-time equivalents in total in the police. That is 3,354 full-time equivalents more than in 2014.
Lønseth does not want to criticize the police for not using the resources they receive well enough.
– The police are doing the best they can with the resources they have. Some of the challenge is that there is a shortage of experienced investigators and in the prosecution service. The police also require people with economic and IT expertise, says Lønseth.
“More sophisticated crime”
Justice and Preparedness Minister Astri Aas-Hansen (Ap) says that the government has implemented a number of measures to turn the tide.
– The government has strengthened the police budget by over 30 percent since we took office in 2021, it has never been more people working in the police than now, says Aas-Hansen.
She also points out that today’s crime picture requires a new type of competence.
The Justice Minister believes that the negative development in the number of solved cases is due to a new type of crime now hitting Norway to a greater extent.
– There is an increase in digital fraud and more sophisticated organized crime, as well as increased pressure on the police due to the security policy situation. The government has also commissioned a research assignment to gain more knowledge about the causes of the development. The Police Directorate and the Director of Public Prosecutions are also closely monitored to receive reporting on the development and measures to ensure better results in the criminal justice chain, she says.