Response to interpellation 2023/24:723 on the election promise regarding paid police training
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the election promise regarding paid police training. M emphasizes that a higher police density is necessary for safety 1 and that the goal of 10,000 more police officers was achieved 1. M argues that economic conditions are crucial for the attractiveness of the police profession 2 3 and that questions regarding paid training are being prepared 2 3. M wants to guarantee that they will return with a decision on economic conditions 3 and argues that the police authority has high confidence 3. M wants to see an order for Swedish police and police training 4. MP argues that the government has not answered whether the training should be made paid 5 and that the wait creates uncertainty for young people 6. MP argues that reports do not fulfill the election promise as funding is required 7 and that a change in the Discrimination Act is a prerequisite 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Mr. Speaker! Rasmus Ling has asked me if I will keep the election promise to make the police training paid and when, in that case, it will be fulfilled. Rasmus Ling has also asked me if there are other trainings in the legal field that the Minister and the Government are considering making paid. Finally, Rasmus Ling has asked me how I handle the risk that students wait to apply for the police training while awaiting a decision from the Government on the issue of paid police training.
I want to state first that a higher police density with more police officers near citizens on streets and squares is a necessity to make Sweden safer. The political goal to increase the number of employees at the Police Authority by 10,000 people by the end of 2024 was achieved in March this year. In the Government Bill 2022, it was stated that the police in Sweden shall grow with the goal that the police density shall at least correspond to the average in the EU, and this goal remains.
We are now seeing a high demand for the police training. At several educational institutions, all places for the autumn training are, happily enough, already filled, and applicants are being filled progressively even for the training that begins during the spring of 2025. Compared to the same time last year, we see more approved applications to the police training. More places on the autumn and spring trainings have also been filled, and more people have been confirmed as admitted. At the current stage, we see nothing that indicates that students are waiting to apply for the police training in anticipation of any announcements from the government.
The Swedish Police Authority has taken a number of measures to increase the attractiveness of police training and the police profession. The authority has, among other things, developed new forms and ways to train police officers, for example through function-oriented police training, operationally integrated police training, and part-time training, but also through the possibility of distance learning. This has had an effect, but more needs to be done so that it will also be attractive in the future to train for and work as a police officer.
The Swedish Police Authority has, in two reports to the government, reported how the growth rate in the number of police officers can be maintained and the police density increased. Here are proposals on how the attractiveness of police training can be further strengthened. We are now analyzing these proposals.
I move on to the question of other paid training programs within the justice system. For example, the training for those employed within the correctional services is paid. In addition, the positions required to train as a judge and prosecutor are paid. Some discussions about making further training within the justice system paid are currently not taking place within the government.
I would like to broaden the perspective somewhat in conclusion. The attractiveness of the police profession, of course, is about significantly more than the in themselves important issues regarding the content of the training and the conditions during the period of study. We have invested greater resources than ever before in the Swedish police. We provide police employees with new effective tools to carry out their mission, and we tighten the penalties so that the police's work efforts result in clearer consequences for criminals. Through all of this, we also contribute to maintaining the Swedish people's high trust in the police and to strengthening the authority's long-term attractiveness as an employer.
Rasmus Ling (MP)
Madam President! I thank Minister Gunnar Strömmer for the answer to my interpellation.
To begin with, I want to say that there are several things that the Minister for Justice brings up that we can collectively rejoice about. It is of course good that the goal for the number of police employees that existed previously, for growth with 10,000 employees, was achieved in March this year. The agency needs to continue to grow. That more people are seeking out the training and want to work within the important police profession is naturally also pleasing.
There are factors that the Minister for Justice raises which are decisive for how many apply for the education and the profession and, naturally, also for how many stay. Some of these things are political; other things are such as those that the Swedish Police Authority as an employer needs to work on continuously. It can be about work tasks or about things concerning powers, which the Minister for Justice was touching upon. It can naturally be about such as scheduling and the possibility for further education. It can also be about salary. Politically, the government and we in the Riksdag need to provide the management of the Swedish Police Authority with conditions that allow them, in turn, to take responsibility as an employer.
Madam Speaker! I did not receive an answer to my main question in the interpellation. It concerned whether the police training will be paid or not. The attractiveness of the profession, which has been mentioned previously, is one thing. The question regarding the election promise that the Moderaterna gave that the police training shall be paid can, however, be answered with a yes or a no. I hope that I can get an answer to that question.
This is not a small issue, and it was also not a detail question in the election campaign. This was something that came up in every legal policy debate and in very many of the general policy debates during the last election campaign. This was something that the Moderaterna said would be implemented.
Now we are in a situation where the Moderaterna have both the position of Minister for Justice and the position of Minister for Finance. It is probably not just me who wonders when an announcement will come regarding whether this is to be done and, if so, when. Half of the mandate period - two years - has passed. It is high time that we get an answer to this question.
Connected to that question is also the question of retroactivity. Will there be a transitional solution when this is introduced, if it is introduced? Or could it be that the one who begins the police training this autumn does not get it paid, while the one who starts in the autumn of 2025, 2026 or 2027 will get it? I believe, Madam Speaker, that it could be seen as unfair by the students who it would concern in that case.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Rasmus Ling for the opportunity to discuss these extraordinarily important issues in the chamber today.
When it comes to the paid police training, there is no doubt whatsoever that this was one of the Moderates' central election promises in this area. The background to this was an insight among us and many others that the economic conditions for police officers and for those who undergo police training is a factor that is significant – perhaps even a decisive factor – when we look forward and are to increase the attractiveness of the police profession and the police training in competition with other professions, even professions where there is funding in connection with the training, for example on the defense side.
Rasmus Ling raised how this should in that case be designed - there are various conceivable paths forward - and how one should in that case behave towards students who have already been admitted to a police training. These questions are being prepared in the Government Offices in light of the materials that have been submitted from the Swedish Police Authority, where they highlight a number of different points intended to increase the attractiveness of the police training. The economic conditions are one such question.
Also in light of one of the points that Rasmus Ling has in his question, namely the risks of missing communications and such things that can affect, my straight answer to the question is that we will come back with very straight communications on how we view the issue and how it should be designed if it is the case that we are to go this way. I want to communicate that collectively in that case, also to avoid some of the risks that Rasmus Ling is referring to.
Let me also say that, as we have touched upon, it is a long series of different factors that affect the attractiveness of the police profession.
I was in New York recently. Many have been there before me – I know that the members of the Committee on Justice were there earlier in the year.
I visited, among other places, a police station in Harlem, where they told me that they were actually supposed to have 200 police officers but now there were 150. I asked why it was that way. There are, of course, different reasons, but they pointed out that fewer people are applying for the police profession. There is a decreased attractiveness. What were then the main reasons for that? Had the economic conditions changed? They had not, but they pointed out two factors.
One had worse conditions to fulfill the mission, based on different political decisions that mean they have worse conditions today than they had previously to fulfill their important crime-fighting mission and their important preventive mission.
The second was what they perceived as a suspicion of the police in a long debate directed at the police but also in legal proceedings against individual police officers and so on.
Their co-submission was that we must ensure that our police have effective tools so that they can fulfill their mission and be very careful with a political debate that undermines trust in the police on incorrect grounds.
I thought of it, for example, in light of the debate we had in Sweden about security zones. These are issues where one can have different opinions. But there was an undertone in the debate that was very suspicious towards Swedish police, as if they were, so to speak, waiting for the opportunity to, for example, discriminate against citizens.
I believe we should be very careful with that type of rhetoric. I believe it is very significant when it comes to safeguarding trust in the police and thus also safeguarding the attractiveness of the police profession.
Rasmus Ling (MP)
Madam Speaker! I think we are going very wrong in this debate if criticism of political proposals is seen as a lack of confidence in the police.
To begin with, that is not the case. I think the Minister for Justice should refrain from bringing it onto that track, because it is not in that way.
We have a police act in Sweden that regulates the police's powers. One can discuss how it should look, but that one wants it in a certain way and not in another in the police act or in other laws concerning the police's work has nothing to do with the extent to which one has confidence in the police.
There is certainly much to learn from the American system. There are also things we should not emulate. We can observe that they have a fundamentally different system than we have in Sweden. In Sweden, we have two police authorities, Säkerhetspolisen and Polismyndigheten. In the USA, they have over 16,000 different police authorities. That being said, there are naturally things to learn.
Madam Speaker! What the interpellation actually concerns, the Moderate election promise regarding paid police training, is what I am most eager to get an answer on.
I hear the Minister for Justice saying that the design is being prepared in the Government Offices and that they want to return collectively in the communication regarding that, also in order to avoid the risks that I mentioned in my previous speech.
A follow-up question on that is, of course, when we can expect a decision in this matter. Is there any timetable in the Government Offices for this matter?
Madam Speaker! The Police Authority has, as the Minister for Justice mentioned, been tasked by the government to produce reports on how more people can seek employment in the police force. Various proposals have been presented on how this could look. One can receive cash payments while the training is ongoing. It is also possible to have systems where student loans are written off. In such a system, this can also occur retroactively – even if, in that case, Madam Speaker, it may result in a difference for those who have not taken out student loans during the period of study.
But the fact that the Swedish Police Authority has had this assignment and produced these reports does not in itself fulfill the election promise. Doing so costs money, Madam President, and I have not envisioned that this is something the Swedish Police Authority is to finance within its own budget. In that case, it will of course be necessary to cut back on other things, and I have not understood that is what has been proposed.
Apart from when the government will present a proposal, the question is how much money will be allocated and when it will occur.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! All the questions that Rasmus Ling raises are of course relevant to the issue at hand, including the question of when such a reform would in such a case be presented. But I think it lies in the nature of the matter that the timing of that is also something we shall return to.
The reports and documents from the Swedish Police Authority are, however, relevant in several ways. They are, so to speak, the underlying material for the preparatory processes that are currently ongoing in the Government Offices. There, the issue we are discussing today, the economic conditions for police students, is one issue. But a number of other things concerning police training are also being addressed. It is that whole which we are now preparing, and our intention is to return with a collective response on those issues. I do not intend to say when it will happen, but I can guarantee that it will happen. At that time, we will also provide a collective account of how we view, for example, the issues regarding the economic conditions for police students during their studies.
Regarding the second question about this matter of the security zones, which Rasmus Ling reacted a bit to, I would like to repeat what I said. It is of course so that one must be able to have different political views on substantive policy proposals, and I have no views on that. I completely agree that if one does not envision security zones as a tool that should be introduced, it does not need to be an expression of mistrust towards the police.
However, I cannot escape the fact that parts of the debate that was conducted had as some kind of underlying starting point that if only a legal space were created, police would gladly step forward and engage in methods or use tools in such a way that it could constitute, for example, discrimination or that one would want to racially profile or whatever it may be.
I dare to assert that there are also differing opinions among police officers as to whether security zones are good or less good tools. But I have also heard from many that precisely that dimension of the debate, or that undertone in some posts in the debate, is noted as a kind of latent mistrust.
I believe the Swedish Police Authority is the authority that the Swedish people have the highest trust in of all authorities. Something that has struck me during the slightly over 18 months that I have held this role is what central role good values and our democratic rules of the game have, and how strongly it is anchored within the Swedish police force.
The awareness that individual police officers can make mistakes is, of course, there. There are also rigorous systems in place to handle that. I am only saying that we have very good reasons to stand up for our police as well in fundamental issues of values. I am very confident that the police, even when we give them very offensive tools, will handle it in a judicious manner and also that any missteps will be handled in a very careful and consistent way.
That is why I think it is important to highlight this as part of a broader discussion on the attractiveness of the police profession. The economic conditions in the training are, of course, extraordinarily central. Other conditions, both the economic conditions and other working conditions while being an active police officer, are of course significant. Access to tools that make it possible to do a good job is extraordinarily central. Proper consequences as a result of the work efforts are also something very central. So is also the question of how we generally speak about the Swedish police.
Rasmus Ling (MP)
Madam Speaker! I am more than happy to discuss the security zones, the visitation zones. We had a three-hour chamber debate on the issue. I am happy to return to it. Now it is not the theme of this interpellation, but we can certainly have that discussion. There will naturally be reason to have the discussion when we see how this plays out moving forward.
I would like to make an objection, Madam Speaker. In the debate that the Minister for Justice referred to, I thought it was more palpable that those who wanted this system on incorrect grounds accused critics of lacking confidence in the police. I mean that in itself is something that creates an image that such confidence is lacking, which it is not.
I have full confidence in the Swedish Police Authority. Of course, mistakes were also made among police officers, as the Minister for Justice says. But overall, when it comes to the authority, there is no dividing line in terms of confidence in the police, and it is not an example of that which the Minister for Justice raises.
However, Madam Speaker, we have pointed out that a prerequisite for this system to be implemented is a change in the Discrimination Act. It is not Gunnar Strömmer who is responsible for that; it is Paulina Brandberg. We are waiting. We have been informed that that question is also being prepared in the Government Offices. We hope that it can move forward so that even the police's response in those cases where things actually go wrong can be included in this.
Madam President! The interpellation concerns, as stated, the Moderate Party's election promise regarding paid police training. We have not been informed that this has been written off. We have been informed that it will come. We have received no information as to when we can expect it.
I hope, Madam Speaker, that we do not need to hover in uncertainty. A proposal has been put forward and it is said that this is going to happen. But if one waits for more than two years—if it does not come before September—to tell how this is going to be, that in itself is something that creates uncertainty even for other nearby professional categories within the legal field. I hope, Madam Speaker, that a decision can be made as soon as possible, so that Sweden's young people know what they should expect.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Rasmus Ling, for the opportunity to discuss this important issue today! I think it is good that we can also in the chamber discuss how we can improve the conditions both for police employees and for those who choose to take the police training in order to work as police officers.
I repeat what I have said earlier. All the questions that Rasmus Ling has raised are, of course, very important. It is also crucial that they receive a straight and clear answer when a consolidated, in such cases, proposal on how this should be designed is eventually submitted. We will return to that part. All these aspects and many others are currently being prepared in the Government Offices, as I said. This is, among other things, based on the materials that the Police Authority has submitted on this important issue.
Then I think there is an interesting question that will follow from this. Yes, we in Moderaterna were very clear that we want to see such an order for the Swedish police and for the Swedish police training. Does Miljöpartiet want this?
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.