‘When Shall We Meet?’ Digitalisation of Workforce Planning in the Norwegian Police

In Norway, data-driven management remains a top priority within the police; however, recent audits by The National Audit Office of Norway have highlighted that technological ambitions have largely gone unrealised, leading to excessive spending with little to no tangible results. This chapter draws on document analyses and interviews with police personnel and trade union representatives to explore how the socio-technical imaginaries of data-driven management in service staffing nevertheless influence the power relations between employers and employees within the police service. In line with how larger amounts of data and remote monitoring characterise data-driven management, we find that the ideal of data-driven management, together with organisational measures, creates new norms for the relationship between employers and employees. Although the same data system has been used for digital service planning since 1994, the introduction of new actors working remotely in a centralised Service Planning Office, coupled with work schedules that cover many more police officers, makes it more difficult to assess the risks involved in the plans and consult with the trade union and safety representatives, thereby weakening workplace democracy in practice. Furthermore, it reduces local managers’ knowledge of working time regulations, giving them less scope to manage their teams effectively and safely, and giving the system more power.