Norway
Law enforcement in Norway
A national police in twelve districts under the National Police Directorate — the result of the 2016 proximity-police reform that cut the districts from 27 to 12.
Facts on this page were checked against their sources on .
Norway has a single national police (Politiet), led by the National Police Directorate and organised into twelve police districts, each under a Chief of Police. There is no regional or municipal police. The twelve-district structure is the product of the "proximity-police reform" (nærpolitireformen).
The same idea, explained generally
- Why do societies need law enforcement?
Law enforcement exists so that rules apply to everyone rather than to whoever can be compelled. This guide explains the function, the conditions that make it legitimate, and what it cannot do.
- What is the difference between police and law enforcement?
“Police” is one kind of institution. “Law enforcement” is a function that many bodies perform. This guide explains the distinction and why it matters when comparing countries.
Sources
Sources
Changes to the Police Act etc. (the proximity-police reform / nærpolitireformen) — Storting case
Stortinget (Parliament of Norway) · Legislation · 2015 · link verified 2026-07-26
The Storting's official case page for the police reform (Prop. 61 LS (2014–2015)), fetched. Confirms that the Storting resolved to carry out a police reform ("Stortinget har vedtatt at det skal gjennomføres en politireform"). The reform consolidated the police from 27 to 12 districts, with the 12 districts established from 1 January 2016 — the 12-district figure was independently confirmed in the verification pass. Recorded in prose as an enacted, completed reform, not as a pending scheduled change.
The Prosecution Authority in Norway (official overview)
Government of Norway (Ministry of Justice and Public Security file store, regjeringen.no) · Government publication · link verified 2026-07-26
An official government-hosted overview of the Norwegian prosecution, fetched as a PDF; the independence and structure principles were independently corroborated in the verification pass (Norwegian Bar Association and other sources). Supports the three-level structure — the Director of Public Prosecutions (Riksadvokaten), the regional Public Prosecutors (statsadvokatene), and the prosecution authority embedded inside the police (police lawyers holding prosecutorial powers) — and the independence principle: the prosecuting authority makes its own independent decisions, and only the King in Council (not the Minister of Justice) may give it general instructions; the DPP is appointed by the King in Council and directs both the prosecutors and the police districts. NOTE: this is a pre-2019 document that states the outdated figure of 27 police districts; the district count is now 12 (see no-stortinget-reform) and only the independence/structure principles are relied on from it.