Confidentiality Rules for the Secret Investigation

The Confidentiality Rules for the Secret Investigation keep Harry Hole’s inquiry compartmentalized in a police environment where information may reach the Norwegian Criminal Investigation Service Kriminalamt. They govern not only whom the investigators may consult, but also how they handle a restricted state search system: secrecy is a practical condition of continuing the investigation, and the methods used to preserve it carry their own legal risks.

A Suspected Leak and a Narrow Circle

When Kaja Solness proposes consulting an acquaintance in the vice squad about her sexual-murder theory, Harry refuses. He says the duty of confidentiality applies especially to colleagues at police headquarters because there is a mole inside who is informing the Norwegian Criminal Investigation Service Kriminalamt. The team must therefore speak only with Gunnar Hagen. The unidentified source of the leak makes ordinary professional consultation a threat: even a colleague approached in good faith could widen the circle of people who know what the team is doing.

Björn Holm reinforces the boundary without debate. When Kaja opens her mouth to respond, a look from Björn makes her close it again. The moment shows the rule operating as a group discipline rather than as Harry’s instruction alone: the team recognizes that discussion itself can expose the investigation.

Restricted Searches and Traceability

The confidentiality problem also governs the team’s access to the Norwegian National Security Service’s Secret Search Engine. Harry explains that the system has existed since 1984, but only the Norwegian Police Security Service may use it, and only during crises. Searches can be traced back to the computer from which they were made, so an unauthorized query by Harry or another police officer could expose the user to criminal prosecution. The secrecy rule therefore extends beyond protecting investigative information from a suspected informant; it also requires the team to conceal its use of a system it is not entitled to access.

Katrine Bratt as a Workaround

Harry asks Katrine Bratt to conduct the search from a shared computer at a psychiatric clinic, so that the trace will lead there rather than to a police computer. Katrine immediately identifies the logic of the arrangement: her supposed qualification is not her ability as an investigator, but her status as a patient whom, as Harry presents it, the authorities cannot prosecute. He confirms that he is also relying on her discretion and intelligence.

The exchange exposes the cost of the workaround. The team preserves the secrecy of its inquiry by placing the trace in a setting associated with Katrine’s hospitalization and by relying on her legal vulnerability as protection. Confidentiality here is not a neutral administrative formality: it turns personal trust, institutional exclusion, and the risk of prosecution into instruments of the investigation.

Secrecy as Investigative Method

The rules are defined by the pressure between the need to solve the case and the danger that ordinary channels will betray it. Harry’s restriction on speaking to colleagues and his use of Katrine’s clinic computer are distinct applications of the same strategy: control who can know, and control what an official record can reveal. The suspected mole makes isolation necessary, while the search-system restrictions show that secrecy can require the investigators themselves to operate outside permitted procedures.