ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

CHAPTER FOUR – METHODOLOGY

and at the same time it ensured that the analysis had the informants in the centre.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

When doing research on topics closely related to your own profession and interests, it is vital to keep in mind the ethical aspect of the process at all times. In this research process there have been several ethical considerations, the most important being the importance of doing research on ones own organisation and the anonymity aspect for the informants.

Researcher and Police Officer – Doing Research on ones Own Organisation

When I applied for the Masters programme at the Norwegian Police University College almost four years ago, I worked as a detective sergeant at the investigative branch at the Organised Crime Section in Oslo police district. At that time, I was what Brown (1995) classifies as an ‘inside-‐insider’ – a police officer doing police research. Not only would I then do research on policing issues, however, I would do research on issues directly linked to my day-‐to-‐day responsibilities as an investigator working on THB-‐cases. However, before starting the actual research process for this paper, I changed jobs from Oslo police district to the National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) where I no longer have responsibility for THB-‐cases, nor do I frequent the natural THB-‐gatherings such as seminars and events by KOM. Even though I would still be considered a ‘inside-‐insider’ according to Browns definition of the term, I now feel more like an ‘outside-‐insider’ – a former police colleague doing research on the police. This due to the fact that THB was such a major part of my professional (and personal) life the last two years at Oslo police district. Leaving this position also meant leaving the day-‐to-‐day issues related to THB-‐cases in my professional life.

My position as an ‘inside-‐insider’ (or possibly an outside-‐insider’) is important as it could raise some issues related to the conduction of -‐ and the validity of -‐ this research project. In some ways, the police background and the investigative experience could be a strength that gives a profound understanding and awareness to important issues. It could also result in an amount of acceptance and trust among the informants that an ‘inside-‐outsider’ or an

‘outside-‐insider’ would have difficulties in obtaining. The former being police researchers with a position within the police, but without the police background. The latter being

researchers conducting research on the police from the outside (Brown, 1995, pp. 179-‐184).

On one side, there are some things you cannot learn through reading books and reports.

Especially something as seemingly simple as the mere nature of the investigation process in any given criminal case. Reading about the penal codes and the hierarchy of the decision making processes will not provide a profound understanding of the symbiosis of a

professional cooperation involved in the investigation. There are so many things that you have to understand and take into account. Things that are interlinked in an intricate web of essential factors that make up the total picture of how the formal and informal processes in the police organisation and police culture affects the way a police investigation is carried out. In addition, you need to understand how other aspects like resources, manpower, workload, political influence and the media, may have a direct or indirect impact on the investigation of criminal cases in any given police district. Hopefully, this understanding have aided my questioning of the informants and given a further understanding of the data that followed.

On the other side, there is always a risk that ones own thoughts and experiences may colour the whole research from start to finish. It could lead to a less objective research. However, it is only natural that ones reflections around the police role, the police organisation and police culture are a great part of ones professional self. Nevertheless, “objectivity, redefined by Haraway, means to recognise that knowledge is partial and situated, and to account adequately for the effects of the positioned researcher” (Malterud, 2001). Hence, the

question is perhaps not whether or not the researcher manages to be objective – rather it is a question of being self-‐aware of ones own position, knowledge, views and opinions in order to be able to see how this can affect the research. As such it is important to be aware that the researchers private and professional background is a risk to the validity of the research project. The consciousness of this pitfall has strengthened my resolve to be attentive of my position as an insider and continuously evaluate every step of the research process.

Another aspect of doing research on my own organisation is the handling and sorting of the information and knowledge about policing issues that arise in the research project. It

became apparent during the research process that it was important to be conscious of the fact that I have knowledge about the investigation of THB-‐cases through my profession – knowledge and information a researcher would have to send a formal application to receive.

Furthermore, the knowledge on how certain police districts are organised, what internal rules and regulations that regulate the policing strategies and priorities, might not be public.

Thus, writing this paper, I constantly felt the need to be able to find public sources of information ensure not overstepping any boundaries when completing this report. I knew, for example, about the extensive efforts and cooperation made in Operation Lime, however, not much is written in open sources that could be used in this paper. Using newspaper articles to validate or “wash” information was difficult because some of the information in the articles was unreliable and pure assumptions, or to some extent, also fiction. In the end, the police magazine, Norsk Politi, made a series of articles about Operation Lime, thus

providing a reliable source for this paper. Another example would be writing about the Stop Project in Oslo police district. Many open sources describes parts or persons on the project, however, knowing that this information is partly or wholly wrong, it could not be used as a reference. In this particular case, I ended up writing an e-‐mail to the Head of Section, Police Superintendent Harald Bøhler, asking him if he would answer some questions about the Stop Project. Luckily, he was willing to clarify some of the issues that other open sources had all wrong, and he was also willing to be cited. The same applies to information provided by Police Superintendent Jarle Bjørke about Operation South-‐West, and information from former Nordic Liaison Officer in Bulgaria and Romania, Frode Rognan, about THB-‐cases from that region.

Anonymity

The anonymity of the informants is important in this study, as this may be the very basis for the informant’s willingness to speak freely in the interviews. However, as the THB-‐cases are rather few, and the convictions are even fewer, the professional academic on THB is rather restricted in Norway. Knowing that only two police districts have formalised and specialised anti-‐THB units, and that some of the other larger cities have only a few persons dedicated to this field, is an important fact to consider. In fact, there was throughout the whole process a question if the police districts represented should be mentioned or if it should just be

mentioned how many districts there were in total. The few ‘insiders’ of the THB academia in Norway might even recognise each other despite the usage of pseudonyms and disguised

locations (Christians, 2005, pp. 144-‐145). It is a fine line between informing the reader about the research process and the sampling of informants and protecting the informants from exposure (Stake, 2005, p. 459). Therefore, to ensure the anonymity of the informants, a code-‐key was created and utilized throughout the process when referring to the informants.

Each informant has a unique combination of letters and numbers in order for me to be able to distinguish which informant said what without ever having to register their names or police districts in any material.

CHALLENGES

Working on this thesis has presented some challenges that I feel I misjudged the importance of when starting this research project. What was challenging was to know, or rather, to understand what needed to be presented, explained and discussed when it comes to policing issues that has relevance to the topic of this paper. I for one, have a tendency to dislike presentations that start off by showing the organisational map of an institution or

organisation. However, as the progress of presenting how the Norwegian police investigate THB-‐cases evolved, it soon became apparent that it would be impossible for any given reader to understand the issue without placing the policing task of investigation in an national, organizational, legal and practical context. Consequently, the paper needed to describe the police organisation and how this may affect the investigation of criminal cases.

It had to describe the legal framework in which the police are obliged to work. In addition, the paper had to illustrate generic issues relating to the investigation of criminal cases – without necessarily going into specific details that may vary from case to case. Thus, balancing the information that this paper needed, what I found relevant and what the average reader might find educational and interesting was not easy.

Another challenge this research presented, is a well-‐known problem to all researchers, the respondent fatigue. Many informants answered swiftly and were positive to the project and to participating. However, this was not always the case, and that was disappointing. Sending one, two or three requests by mail where the person ticks the box that indicates that he/she has read the mail, and then never receiving any answer to the request was tiring and time-‐

consuming. Perhaps the experience was extra frustrating because I have always felt that investigators (this includes the police prosecutors) must stick together – as sort of ‘partners

in crime’. Because working as an investigator can be hard and lonely work. It can be frustrating to feel that the time and effort you put into a case is not appreciated or

understood by colleagues whom have not worked with investigation to the same extent that you have. In addition, there is often much focus on the work done by patrolling officers and to a lesser extent on the work done by investigators. This applies to both the media and the general interest in academia.

Last, but not least, I would like to mention the challenge of interviewing, but not being able to include one informant that could have given this paper some extra spice. In June 2014, I interviewed a colleague from Portugal whom has been working with criminal investigations of THB in Portugal for approximately 10 years. He had some very interesting law

enforcement perspectives on the challenges that THB-‐cases may produce. However, as Portugal has a completely different society, judicial system, police organisation and legal framework for working with these cases, it was a challenge to do a comparison in this paper without including a more through description of the differences between Norway and Portugal. The informant was, for instance, convinced that the Norwegian system where the prosecutors are embedded in the police is an advantage to the investigation of THB-‐cases.

The Portuguese system has the two separated and this is a severe drawback to the

communication in the investigation process. Still, the phenomena of THB is much the same, consequently challenges the Norwegian police and prosecutors face are much similar to challenges they face in Portugal. Especially relating to the victims of THB.

In document Tracking the trafficker?: A qualitative study of the investigation of trafficking in human beings in Norway (sider 59-64)