The National Audit Office's report on the Swedish Police Authority's work with special operations targeting organized crime

Katja Nyberg (SD)

Madam Speaker! Today we are debating the National Audit Office's report on the Police Authority's work with special events targeted at organized crime.

Organized crime does not only represent a deadly violence that affects more and more people – it also eats its way into the welfare system. At the same time, we live under an elevated terror threat, and democratic values are challenged by threats and violence. Taken together, this means we truly need a police authority that functions fully.

The Swedish National Audit Office has examined whether the Police Authority's work with special incidents is an effective form of management for combating serious crime. The results of the Swedish National Audit Office's investigation regarding special incidents are unfortunately in the same spirit as the report on large-scale crime: the police are insufficient to fully handle their mandate.

Fundamentally, it is about a police shortage. The police shortage causes ordinary operations to falter while special incidents are used to resolve long-term crises, and that creates problems.

The way the Police Authority uses special events causes the ordinary operations to suffer. Police officers are moved to solve the resource shortage by invoking special events, which in turn leads to a resource shortage elsewhere.

Police officers who are moved need to spend time establishing themselves in a new location. This leads to a lack of continuity and long-term perspective, and it results in poorer opportunities for relationship-building work. Furthermore, specific incidents that occur over longer periods can lead to parallel management systems and inefficient use of resources.

The majority of the police personnel whom the Swedish National Audit Office has consulted in the audit state that special operations have the greatest effect in the short term. Nearly one-third of the local police area commanders who have responded to the Swedish National Audit Office's survey state that special operations aimed at serious crime could, for the most part, be handled by the routine operations with the support of clearer leadership and management. The local police area commanders also state that no impact analyses are conducted on how their operations are affected when resources are sent to a special operation. They also do not feel involved in the decisions, despite the fact that they are those who have the best knowledge of what problems and needs exist in their local police area.

Madam Speaker! An important part of our democratic society is that we should be able to expect that the state's funds are managed and utilized in the best possible way. The police authority has received enormous resource increases, but the results are not improving. It is not only possible to blame the increasing serious crime. The police need to become more efficient and use their resources in a better way.

The previous weak and generally fearful government has now been replaced by a government with a completely different clarity and focus. What we Sverigedemokrater have said is needed is now finally on its way to becoming a reality. We will ensure to push the current government in every single part. We will act as a spotlight for a policy that truly gives the police what is needed so that it can have a reasonable chance to achieve better results.

As I have said before, Madam Speaker, a whole chain of measures was needed - everything from a removal of provocative and fundamentally completely absurd sentence reductions to harsher sentences overall - while at the same time we strengthen the local presence and ensure that preventive measures are truly preventive and not a shot in the air. When a youth at an early age is allowed to keep on and keep on without any real consequence, this youth will continue to keep on. It is no more difficult than that.

Madam Speaker! Now a paradigm shift awaits, which aims at criminals being treated as just criminals and not as victims. We will work to get more capable police officers and more police officers who are actually out in the field – who come closer to the citizens and make a concrete difference by showing their presence. We will ensure that criminals do not get a moment's peace. It is not they who are to be protected; it is the public who is to be protected. Now we have a real chance to turn the development – with a new leadership for the police, with a new and significantly more precise policy and with an approach that signals strength.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Petter Löberg (S)

Madam Speaker! Katja provided an overview of the matter. It concerns the National Audit Office's audit - or audits, one might say, since in a short while we will also debate an audit concerning quantity crimes - of how follow-ups have been conducted and how effectively work is being done to combat serious organized crime, primarily within the framework of what is called special events.

Initially, I would like to move for approval of the joint reservation that Miljöpartiet, Vänstern and Socialdemokraterna have in the report.

Finally, we have some matters for the Committee on Justice on the Riksdag's table! It is symptomatic that these are matters initiated by authorities, in this case the National Audit Office, and not by the government. I will initially sprinkle a little salt in the speech: After the legislative products put forward by the social democratic red-green government ran out on the shelves in the Ministry of Justice, there has been incredibly little activity in committees and in the chamber regarding these issues, despite the fact that there is no direct lack of challenges to tackle. Almost one and a half years of the mandate period have passed, and a clear majority of the committee's work has been about handling matters initiated by the previous government. It is meager - very meager. We will have to see how it turns out in ours; quite a lot is being announced, which is needed.

We will, however, have to grumble, not least Riksrevisionen, Brå and a number of other evaluating authorities. In this case, in a number of points, they direct what we might call stinging criticism towards how the Polismyndigheten conducts and follows up its activities. They describe, for example, that the authority cannot fully account for how much costs the specific incidents have incurred. It also cannot account for the effects. One can also see that not even the municipalities—it is primarily in the municipalities that these networks operate and the incidents take place—have been able to describe what the specific incidents have actually entailed, in any way.

The authority can also not report how many specific incidents have occurred. It is clear that we from the political side demand that the authority has the competence to answer when it is requested by the Swedish National Audit Office to answer these questions. These are fundamental questions. As a curiosity, it can be mentioned that it reminds me a bit of when I asked a question via RUT about how many police stations there were in our elongated country – and received the answer that the Police Authority did not know. It is clear that that is not acceptable. It ended with me having to count the police stations myself. That works too, but it took a little time.

Back to the review: The National Audit Office has a number of recommendations, and our reservation is actually about whether these should be followed or taken into account in different ways. It is about producing a national situation report for the resource shifts, developing documentation, and evaluating – self-evident matters, really, and that is what it should be for the country's largest agency. But it is also about ensuring that the knowledge gained from these specific events and the experiences they contribute to are disseminated in a systematized and good way to different parts of the organization. The National Audit Office does not experience that this is being done today.

To be clear - and this unfortunately applies to all available police research in our society, even though perhaps there should be more developed such research - this shows that it is based on the local problem picture. In a Swedish context: If one does not have fully equipped area police groups and if one does not have local investigative capacity in the local police areas, one does not manage the long-term work. The National Audit Office points out part of the problem in that specific incidents draw resources from the local level. It is one of the main points in the criticism.

This is something that the Police Union also points out in its comments. It is argued that it leads to different types of deficiencies elsewhere when police officers are moved to resolve resource shortages in various places and areas regarding the specific incidents. Police officers who move in and live in hotels for longer periods – or even move to a new location, if that is the case – need to spend a lot of time establishing themselves. This creates a lack of continuity and long-term perspective and poorer opportunities to work on relationship-building in the local context, the Police Union argues. This has, for example, quite tough consequences when it comes to the volume crimes, which we will discuss later.

There is a lot of salt in the criticism, and there is a lot of salt in my speech as well. Is it then all bad to work with specific events? No, we are convinced that very much good will also come from this. We have been able to follow several cases from the political horizon and see that very good work is being done.

We have, for example, been able to see how Operation Frigg has given rise to groundbreaking new methods that the Swedish police will benefit from for many years to come. In that case – and in a number of other cases – success has been great when it comes to prosecuting individuals, not least central key figures, within organized crime. It has been possible to see that the amount of seizures and detentions of weapons and smuggling attempts is large and shows a result with high quantity and quality.

The international collaborations that have been built up within the framework of, for example, Operation Frigg will create the conditions to tackle internationally branched crime in the longer term. It is truly an impressive achievement that the involved police officers and civil servants have carried out; that is what I want to say - also precisely given the criticism that the experiences may not be fully taken into account. One has a momentum, and now it is a matter of building further on it.

It can also be said in the name of justice that the report from the National Audit Office describes that new methods have been implemented in the line operations that have emerged during the specific incidents, for example the regional operations and fraud centers which have subsequently functioned well.

Well, Madam Speaker – will everything become fine if one follows these recommendations fully? Will the gangs be broken? Will the historically low and completely unacceptable clearance rate be rectified? No, it is not really that simple. Fundamentally, it is about the police shortage, and in that part, there is a couple of pieces of good news.

One part concerns the recommendations otherwise regarding method development and other matters. That needs to be worked on more. The police growth will slowly but surely be resolved, and there is a strong consensus among the political parties in this chamber that we should reach a European standard average or similar.

I also have to point something out, not to boast, but still. The historical decision to start two new police academies and training programs and regarding 10,000 new police employees made that the politicians pointed with the whole hand and demanded delivery. You will achieve 10,000 new police employees, even if perhaps not with the distribution between police officers and civil servants that the Police Authority itself had desired. The political message, however, was that 10,000 new police employees would be delivered, and that has been done.

To a large extent, this is due to the two new training centers in Malmö and Borås, where there is incredible creativity, focus, and competence. They have delivered from day one and continue to deliver police candidates at a high pace and with high quality, which means that fundamentally I can conclude this speech somewhat in a major key, which may be needed in these new times. Gradually, this will lead to a historically strong growth when it comes to the number of police officers on the streets and squares.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Torsten Elofsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! The crime development in Sweden is unparalleled in Europe. The severe violence involving shootings and explosions is a major problem across the entire country and is spreading increasingly even outside the large cities. Nowhere else in Europe are more people killed by gun violence.

Every shooting is in itself a tragedy, and every figure in the statistics has a name. Every murdered person has a family and friends.

The development must turn - and it can be turned. Words are now followed by political action, and we now have a government that takes a holistic approach to crime policy instead of just trying to paint over cracks in the facade.

Madam Speaker! In order to tackle serious crime, all parts of law enforcement must be effective. One method that the police can use to combat serious crime involving shootings and explosions is so-called special events. In short, it means that an event is or is expected to become so extensive, serious or complex that the Police Authority must plan, organize or lead its operations in a special manner. A decision on a special event enables a rapid mobilization of resources and expertise from different police areas.

Madam Speaker! The Swedish National Audit Office has examined how this work functions and whether special events are an effective form of management. The Swedish National Audit Office's audit is very welcome and highlights several issues that are important to take with us forward, both regarding organized crime and serious crime.

The National Audit Office notes that special events can be an effective way to lead the work during the first hours or days after a serious crime has been committed. In that situation, it is good to be able to quickly gather the resources in a command center mode.

When specific events are ongoing over a longer period, it tends to become counterproductive. The interventions can do more harm than good in the aggregate, because such large resource shortages arise in the local police areas from which the resources were taken. Crime is so widespread across the country that it cannot be ignored that it affects in many different ways.

Madam Speaker! In the audit, the Swedish National Audit Office points out deficiencies regarding documentation and the possibility of following up and evaluating the police's work with special operations targeting serious crime.

As the committee notes in the report, it is entirely up to the Swedish Police Authority to make operational decisions. We politicians should not be interfering there; instead, the professionals know best what applies. What must work, however, is good documentation so that it is possible to follow up and evaluate the interventions. The review shows that the Swedish Police Authority has not been able to account for either the total number of special incidents or the number of special incidents against serious crime, or the total additional cost for these. Taken together, this means that it has not been possible to measure whether the interventions have been effective.

Madam Speaker! In order to tackle serious crime, all links in the law enforcement chain must be effective. Then we must be able to measure and evaluate efforts, and there must be systems for this. Otherwise, there is a risk that it will be counterproductive, that the police will fall behind, and that we play into the hands of the criminals.

The recent violent events, primarily in the Stockholm area but also in other parts of the country, have been and are a great strain on the police organization. However, lessons have been learned and methods of work have been successfully changed, with better cooperation and division of labor both internally and in cooperation with other authorities. One is also increasing the clearance rate and preventing many crimes. Whether the current way of working is to be regarded as a special event or a prioritized activity within the line organization is a question of semantics, but the requirement for documentation and follow-up applies regardless.

Madam Speaker! As stated in the government's communication, the Swedish Police Authority has taken several measures in the area. Among other things, they have reviewed and developed their IT systems to increase the possibility of continuously monitoring the resources allocated to specific incidents. This development work is particularly welcome.

Madam Speaker! In the ongoing dialogues with the Police Authority, the government will continue to specifically follow up on the work regarding special incidents. Here, we Christian Democrats will continue to push for crime fighting where resources are used effectively. Our work to combat serious crime continues, and we must safeguard the local police presence so that the police can handle serious crime locally and be visible in the local community.

Therefore, Madam Speaker, I move for approval of the committee's proposal in the report.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Rasmus Ling (MP)

Madam Speaker! To begin with, I would like to move for approval of the reservation in the committee report.

When the Police Authority was merged into a national authority and a national police, it was one of the largest state organizational changes that had been made in modern times. As with much else, many probably had wished that it had happened earlier. It was during a few years in the 2010s that it was decided, implemented, and investigated. Once this was done, all parties stood behind it and felt that the advantages outweighed compared to having it regionally, as it was previously.

With this said, not all goals have been met in the new organization, but I believe there are few who would want to go back. People still want to work from the organization that we have decided upon.

One thing that was wanted to be addressed and which was the objective of the organization was that the police should be able to collect and direct resources all over the country, that is, exactly what we are discussing right now and which the Swedish National Audit Office has audited. In theory, it is very good.

If the police have 30,000 employees, or 26,000 or 34,000, they can be directed towards the parts of the country where there is a need. In theory, it is therefore very good, but the review that the Swedish National Audit Office has conducted shows that there are major deficiencies in how the police use this. One is that the municipalities are not involved to a high enough degree for a greater effect to be achieved.

The Swedish National Audit Office's report on the Police Authority's work with specific incidents directed against organized crime

There is also a lack of much statistics and documentation, for example regarding the number of special events. There is a lack of information on costs and also on opportunity costs, i.e., displacements, that special events have caused. If resources are gathered in one place, it becomes less in another by definition, and this has effects at the other end.

Madam Speaker! The National Audit Office has a number of recommendations, for example, that criteria should be developed as a basis for decisions on whether a situation should be handled within the framework of a regional or national special incident, that a national situation report should be developed to serve as a basis for decisions on resource shifts, and that the documentation should be further developed.

Miljöpartiet proposes, together with S and V, a motion to the government that it shall ensure that the National Audit Office's recommendations are followed. It is essential that this is taken to heart and that this tool is used in a more optimal way than until now. If this tool is to function, one must be able to assess gains but also costs in relation to it. Here, the Swedish Police Authority has a job to do, and the government needs to ensure that these recommendations are followed.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(Decisions were made under § 20.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)