[4] The organisation is divided into nine districts, the largest being the Reykjavík Metropolitan Police (Lögreglan á höfuðborgarsvæðinu), which is responsible for the Capital Region[5] and its total population of around 208,000 people.

Up until that time, the law had been enforced first by individuals permitted to do so by the Althing and then by sýslumenn (sheriffs) and other Royal proxies.

The first police chief was Rasmus Frydensberg, the town mayor, who hired two former soldiers, Ole Biørn and Vilhelm Nolte, as the first policemen.

The act also authorized the Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical affairs to call out reserves in critical situations.

[12] On 2 December 2013, a person died due to an armed police operation for the first and currently only time in Iceland's history.

When the special police unit entered the apartment in question, two officers were injured by shotgun fire.

National Police Commissioner Haraldur Johannessen immediately apologised to the man's family, calling the incident "unprecedented".

After about an hour, the man came out of the house and started shooting at the police officers taking cover behind cars in the driveway.

On 21 September 2022, the police arrested four individuals who were suspected of alleged terrorist plot, the first of its kind in the country, to attack various institutions and citizens of the state.

[23] After the changes took place, cadets are now required to complete a two-year Police Science university diploma consisting of 120 ECTS credits.

[29] Most patrol vehicles are equipped with firearms in order to limit the response time needed in assignments that demand armed police.

The most common police cars are the Volvo V90 CC, Škoda Octavia and Superb, and the Land Rover Discovery.

[39][40] In 1939, at the orders of then Prime Minister Hermann Jónasson, the State Police and the Útlendingaeftirlitið [is] (Foreigner monitoring agency) founded a security department, or eftirgrennslanadeild [is] in Icelandic.

[42][43] It was not until 2006 that this service was officially acknowledged, after having been known to only a handful of men for more than 60 years, after historians were granted limited access to secret documents.