National Police of Iceland
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Police 'Lögregla' |
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Official insignia
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| Motto |
With laws shall lands be built |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1778 |
| Employees | c. 805 (2011) |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| National agency | Iceland |
| Size | 103,000 km2 (40,000 sq mi) |
| Population | 332,529 |
| Governing body | Icelandic government |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Elected officer responsible | Ólöf Nordal, Minister of the Interior |
| Agency executive | Haraldur Jóhannessen, National Commissioner |
| Facilities | |
| Police cars and motorcycles | c. 300+ (2012) |
| Website | |
| logregla |
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The Police (Icelandic: Lögregla, lit. 'Law Order') is responsible for law enforcement throughout the country, except in Icelandic territorial waters which fall under the jurisdiction of the Icelandic Coast Guard. Police affairs in Iceland are the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior and are administered by the Office of the National Commissioner of the Police (Embætti ríkislögreglustjóra) on behalf of the ministry. The organisation is divided into 9 districts, the largest being the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police (Lögreglan á höfuðborgarsvæðinu), which is responsible for the Capital Region and its total population of around 208,000 people.
The Police can trace its origins to 1778 when the first traces of industry started to appear. Up until that time, the law had been enforced first by individuals permitted to do so by the Althing and then by sýslumenn (sheriffs) and other Royal proxies.
The first Policemen are considered to be the morningstar armed night-watchmen of Reykjavík who were commissioned primarily to deter the prisoners of the Reykjavík 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 apparent in violent attempt to force the decisions of the Reykjavík 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.
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Wikipedia