Company: PwC Norway

Client: The Norwegian Police

Country: Norway

This project shows how the police in a European country takes a service design approach to strengthen the outside–in perspective in their governance, development and daily operations. The Citizen Centric Police Initiative aims to operationalise one of the police’s prioritized strategic areas: Improved service, increased availability and more efficient services to citizens. In 2021, the National Police Directorate received external funding from a public sector innovation stimulus programme, choosing “the entrant” as their supporting partner.

The approach was explorative, and followed a "triple diamond" design process: Firstly a diagnose of the problem, then real-life experiments with citizen involvement, and finally a plan for implementation.

One example: In parts of a smaller city, the police experienced an increase in youth crime. Together with the local council, we involved 400 teenagers, facilitated digital workshops with the local community, and made simple improvements to the police service. The case demonstrated how a service design approach allowed youth, parents, volunteers, and public services to join forces and tackle a potential problem in their community – with the police as a facilitator.

This first year of the project showed the potential value of citizen involvement. We also found many good examples across the country, but there was no systematic approach to scaling them on a national basis. Therefore, we set up The Citizen Team as an internal support service, to help different parts of the police succeed involving the citizens in their work. This multidisciplinary team provides sparring, mobilizes leaders, shares existing insights, develops police specific methods and builds competency across the organisation.

By the spring of 2023 this team has:
● Facilitated workshops with local and national leadership teams, helping them connect citizen perspectives to their priorities
● Incorporated targets for citizen involvement in internal reporting routines and strategic documents
● Supported a range of big and small citizen centric initiatives across the organisation, across the country
● Developed a set of simple methods and tools for citizen involvement, available to every employee and leader
● Arranged large events for leaders and key practitioners to train service design skills, listen to citizens and share experiences
● Continuously identified and shared good practices and examples of citizen involvement as they happen
● Set up a growing community of practitioners across the police, that regularly share their experiences
● As of 2023, embedded citizen involvement in the national police education curriculum
● Not least, fueled this cultural shift by increasing the awareness and engagement for a citizen centric way of working across the police

To be able to deliver on their social mission, the police depend on citizens' trust. By taking a service design approach, the Citizen Centric Police initiative gives the organisation the skills and structure they need to continue building trust every day.

Service designers/team:
PwC: Anders Kjeseth Valdersnes, Ragnhild Stenvaagnes, Marte Andresen, Astrid Langnes Vierdal, Roger Mortensen, Kristian Eide.

Police: Anne-Catherine Gustafson, Caroline Carho, Mona Hovland Jacobsen, Kaja Fønhus Brenna, Nils Moe, Wenche Kristiansen Johre, Janne Stømner, Pål Meland, Katrine Henriksen, Espen Thunestvedt, Nina Merete Berg, Karoline Lynne,
Jonas Rekdal Martinsen