Special Operations.Com
Iceland
Special
Operations and Counterterrorist Forces
The city of Reykjavik.
Sersveit logreglunnar i Reykjavik
- Reykjavik Special Squad
Viking Squad
Iceland has no armed forces and from
the very first beginning the Police has been organized
on non-military lines. Responsibility for the Police
lies with the Ministry of Justice. There is one exception
however, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible
for the Police at Keflavik International Airport. Chiefs
of Police are responsible for execution of Police tasks
in their districts.
Most of the Police Forces in Iceland
make no special distinction between tasks, since most
of them have only few Officers who must be able to
perform all ordinary Police work. In bigger Police
Districts, with twenty to thirty Officers, two or
three Officers are specifically assigned to a Criminal
Investigation Branch.
The Police in Iceland are very restricted
in their use of force and the Police Officers are
unarmed while on duty except with a short baton but
they are all trained in the use of firearms. Within
Reykjavik Police there is a group of Officers specially
trained for security work, anti-terrorism and difficult
and dangerously tasks, called the Viking Squad "Víkingasveitin".
This unit, formally known as the Special Squad, but
better known as the "Viking Squad", is under
the command of the Reykjavik Police Department. Its
primary mission is intervention, and this extends
to high risk arrests on the island as well as in Icelandic
territorial waters. Additional duties include VIP
protection for visiting dignitaries. The Commanding
Officer has the rank of Chief Inspector, responsible
to the Chief Superintendent of the Uniformed Branch
and the Chief of Police. This is the only full-time
position in the unit. All other members operate in
their regular duties as policemen, which they carry
out unarmed. There are four members of the Viking
Squad on duty at all times, working in round-the-clock
shifts. Iceland has no armed forces of its own, as
the Icelandic Defense Force (IDF) is provided by the
US government. All Icelandic police are unarmed, in
accordance with strict use-of-force guidelines.
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