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If you have already received a police certificate and keep the same role on a sports team, the police will not renew your certificate. Now the Norwegian Sports Confederation (NIF) is yelling a warning.
Idretts-Norge is full of volunteer coaches and leaders in various capacities.
All those over 15 years of age who will work with children or the mentally disabled have in common that they must present a police certificate documenting that they have a clean record.
In practice, this is the only filter sport has to prevent unsuitable people from joining a sports team.
The police certificate must reveal whether the person in question has been charged, fined or convicted, among other things, of violent crimes, drug crimes or sexual crimes.
– Pretty grumpy at the moment
But the police certificate system has become a sensitive issue in the Norwegian Sports Confederation.
There they have shouted for a long time, warning that the plan does not work.
The core of the dispute is:
Today, sports teams cannot obtain a new police certificate for a person who has previously presented a police certificate to the same sports team, regardless of how long it has been since then.
– This creates some problems for us and is the reason why in NIF we are quite “grumpy” at the moment. We are working to change this now and I think it has been very demanding. We are very happy that the media is focusing on this issue. The kids deserve it, Per Tøien tells Nettavisen.
He is a sports policy spokesperson for the Norwegian Sports Confederation.
Put bluntly, the current scheme means that if a child coach receives a police certificate in 2019 and is found guilty of sexual abuse in 2020, there is no way the sport will be notified or can capture this even through the police certificate scheme. .
THIS MUST BE COMPLETED: Here is the police certificate form that you need to complete if you are requesting a police certificate.
Photo: Police
The change came into effect in spring 2018 and has been the root of great frustration in the Norwegian Sports Confederation.
– It was a challenge, admits Håvard Øvregård to Nettavisen. He is a senior advisor for value work at NIF.
– Completely unsustainable
As a result of the change, Øvregård and NIF have encouraged sports teams to wait for requests for new police certificates until they have received clarification.
That clarification has yet to come.
– Our advice has been renewed every three years, but there is a large replenishment of those responsible for police certificates. Therefore, not everyone has an overview of what has been entered before. Maybe it should be even more frequent, but we’ve said it every three years, he explains.
NIF has already seen the consequences of what they believe to be a scheme with great weaknesses.
Øvregård says he knows of at least one case where a person without a valid police certificate has been a child trainer, because the police certificate was valid when the person first presented a police certificate, and that in the meantime the person has been charged of sexual crimes.
– So the sports team didn’t do it, because they couldn’t have their “three-year check”, they found out before the following year. This happens in the current police certificate scheme and we believe it is completely unsustainable, says Øvregård.
– Sex offenders can escape
The NIF leader believes that the way the system works today, for example, a sex offender without a valid police certificate can get away with a background check in a straightforward way by saying “I’ve already complied before.”
And then the sports team is put to the test.
– If you say that you delivered five or ten years ago, then probably the person responsible for the police certificate in the sports team will not be able to say that this is wrong, Øvregård sighs.
He emphasizes that the NIF is very in favor of the police certificate scheme, it is important that the NIF can eliminate those who have committed sexual crimes against children.
– But as it is today, it is generally a false security, believes Øvregård.
REQUEST A CHANGE: Håvard Øvregård at the Norwegian Sports Confederation.
Photography: Simen Lønning (Nettavisen)
Senior Advisor Heidi Toward at the Police Directorate confirms to Nettavisen that the current scheme dictates that a police certificate can only be obtained before a person starts in a new position or in a new position.
However, he believes there is a reason why the police do not want to spend resources renewing certificates every three years.
– The Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness has assessed that the periodic renewal of certificates is not necessarily the best tool to ensure that voluntary organizations are a safe setting for minors and other vulnerable people, Toward writes in an email to El online newspaper.
She believes that a police certificate will never be a guarantee that criminal acts will not take place, but can be used to exclude people.
– Therefore, a police certificate should only be part of the background check that all employers or clients need to consider in relation to who is suitable for positions or positions. References from other employers and other clubs will also help verify if the person in question is suitable for the position / position, he says.
Øvregård notes that most abusers have nothing on the record from before and therefore the security that a police certificate will provide is limited.
– Most of the people who commit abuses have nothing in the record from before, so the police certificate scheme is only limited security. But now this limited security has also become insecure, Øvregård sighs.
ALARM BEAT: Håvard Øvregård in the Norwegian Sports Confederation.
Photography: Simen Lønning (Nettavisen)
NIF: – This is a problem
From the side of the Norwegian Sports Confederation, they are now calling for faster action from decision makers and the government.
In the worst consequence, there is the risk of having cases in which the convicted culprits commit abuses again, because today there is a system that does not work.
– We have told the ministry this. If further abuses are committed on the sports team, we think it is extremely difficult for the sports teams involved, Øvregård says.
He says that the NIF represented by the sports president, the legal director and himself was in a meeting with the police, the secretary of state of the ministry of justice and the secretary of state of the ministry of culture on May 16, 2019, then that the NIF requested a meeting where this issue should be addressed.
But so far nothing has happened with the scheme.
NIF still receives inquiries from sports teams about what to do with a police certificate.
– We have to answer that they just have to wait. All newcomers are asked for a certificate, but for those who say they have delivered before, they do not have the opportunity.
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