Response to interpellation 2024/25:268 on police presence throughout the country
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M argues that the government is investing a record amount in the police to increase local presence and that police growth continues 1 2. M emphasizes that the authority shall increase the number of uniformed police officers in outer service and that the government is providing funds to strengthen the conditions for police recruits 1 2. M believes that the police should be physically available, via telephone, and digitally 1. M argues that shootings have decreased and that the crime clearance rate for fatal shootings has increased 2. M argues that great progress is being made in Stockholm and that fatal shootings are decreasing 3. M believes that it is bad for safety work that security guards have been phased out 3. M argues that the net growth in the police should occur locally 3. M argues that the flexibility to move resources is a strength, but that it must not become a permanent arrangement 4. S believes that it is unacceptable that the police take a long time during emergency calls in the countryside and that closed police offices in Dalarna indicate problems with the state's presence 5. S argues that a manned police station is a symbol of safety 5. S believes that the government has a Stockholm-hostile policy and that Stockholm lacks a thousand police officers compared to other regions 6. S argues that the government prioritizes high-income earners and that a Stockholm-positive policy is required 6. S believes that more state control of the organization is needed 7. S argues that good intentions are not enough if the results are not visible to the citizens 7. S believes that the state is backing away when local police offices are closed, which leads to longer journeys and a feeling of being forgotten 7. S argues that the government does not see the need to solve Stockholmers' problems 8. S believes that the government is trying to blacken the capital 8. S believes that it is important to increase safety through security guards, cameras, and more social workers 8.
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! Lars Isacsson has asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to ensure an equal police presence throughout the country, even in rural areas. Lars Isacsson has also asked me what I and the government are doing to ensure that local police stations are not phased out, especially in rural areas where they are crucial for safety.
Restoring safety in Sweden is one of the government's most important issues, and an increased local police presence is a central part of that work. When National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh took office in December 2023, the government gave her a very clear mandate for change, an important part of which concerned strengthening the work with a locally visible and safety-creating police force and good service to the citizens. In the regulatory letter for 2024, the government directed the Swedish Police Authority towards the goal of increasing the local presence across the entire country.
The direction towards an increased local presence is fixed. According to this year's regulation letter, which was decided before the turn of the year, the authority shall, among other things, report on which measures have been taken to ensure an increased local presence throughout the country and which measures have been taken to increase the number of uniformed police officers in outer service. It is therefore a matter of the authority increasing the number of police officers who patrol our streets and squares and in our local communities and who meet citizens where they are. It is also a matter of strengthening the management of police towards the local level, so that we can ensure that the Police Authority grows locally.
The Swedish Police Authority shall also report on what the local police presence looks like across the country in the form of the number of employees within the local police areas and the number of municipal police officers and area police officers.
The Government notes in the budget bill for 2025 that the local police presence has increased over time, not least the number of area police officers, and that it continues to increase. The Government nevertheless makes the assessment that there is a continued need for the Police Authority to increase the local police presence throughout the country. A prerequisite for achieving this is that police growth continues and that more people apply for and complete the police training. To secure the continued growth, the Police Authority is allocated 400 million kronor in the autumn revision budget for 2024 and just over 1 billion kronor in the budget bill for 2025. From this year onwards, the authority has also been allocated funds to strengthen the conditions for police aspirants. It also appears from the budget bill that the Government intends to submit proposals that those who study at the police training in autumn 2024 or later shall be able to have their student loans waived or repaid under certain conditions and terms.
Police presence throughout the country is, for the government and for me as the responsible minister, not only about there being physical police stations but also about the police providing good service to the citizens and being available via telephone and digitally. The Police Authority is continuously working to improve its response times at the police contact centers, which receive reports of crimes and tips via telephone. The authority is also continuously improving its website, polisen.se, where reports of crimes or submission of tips can be made digitally. According to the Police Authority's directive letter for 2025, the authority shall report which measures have been taken to improve service and accessibility for the citizens.
The government's initiatives for continued police growth are expected to provide more uniformed officers in outer service. Together with a clear steering towards the local level, the Police Authority is expected to continue increasing its presence throughout the country, even in rural areas. The government continues with this steering of the authority.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer for the answer. I think that in many respects it is a good answer.
Crime is a poison that plagues society. It is not reasonable that in 60 percent of Sweden's municipalities, there are more employees at Systembolaget than there are police officers. Shootings and explosions, which we all too often read about, are no longer just a metropolitan phenomenon. Crime such as burglaries, thefts, drugs, fraud, and domestic violence, other examples of such things that make people feel unsafe, exist in every municipality.
It is time to restore safety and crime fighting across the entire country. Sweden faces major challenges regarding safety and security, not least in rural areas. This is a reality that becomes painfully clear when one listens to the residents in, for example, Dalarna.
I will take a concrete example. In Malung, it took two hours before the police could intervene after an emergency alarm regarding a person causing chaos and danger to life in central Malung. The local police area chief was asked in Falu-Kuriren how it could take two hours during an emergency alarm. He answered with a plain speaking that is good to hear: It is gigantic distances.
This is an unacceptable situation that underscores the structural problems we face regarding police presence throughout the country. A manned police station is not just a physical location but also a symbol of safety and for the state. A constant police presence in a municipality increases general safety and can improve the residents' quality of life. There is also a clear gender equality perspective regarding women's safety in light of the real threats that exist against women's lives and health in close relationships.
The Minister for Justice describes in his response the measures the government has taken and the direction forward. I appreciate the ambition to increase the local presence and improve the governance towards local police areas. But the reality described by the residents in Dalarna and large parts of the rest of Sweden is different. In the last months, three police stations have been closed to the public in Dalarna: in Leksand, Orsa and Rättvik. It shows that we still have major problems with the state's presence in the countryside.
People feel betrayed. As Gunnar in Rättvik told Dala-Demokraten: They are moving everything away from here now - it feels like the state has forgotten us.
We know that crime tends to move to places where the police are absent. It is serious for both safety and trust in the institutions of the rule of law.
Mr. Speaker! I want to ask the Minister for Justice how he can concretely ensure that the residents in the whole country, even in the countryside, can see and feel the initiatives he describes. What are his thoughts on the decision to close the police stations in Dalarna?
Mattias Vepsä (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for coming to the chamber and taking this important debate on how the whole country can be given a police presence!
I initially intended to take a somewhat narrower Stockholm perspective. But I also want to show, in the chamber and for those watching, that a policy for Stockholm in this case can also be a policy for the whole country.
In the political reality in which we live and operate, we have since the change of power two years ago seen an incredibly Stockholm-hostile government. It is a government that has made it a point to let municipalities and regions take the biggest hit when it comes to fighting inflation and sorting out the economic situation we find ourselves in. At the same time as municipalities are forced to save on social services and schools, efforts for unemployment are pushed onto the municipalities without the state taking the costs. We see how the housing sector has crashed.
The government and the Sweden Democrats have devoted all their strength to specifically protecting high-income earners in our country. They have gone through the period of inflation with quite intact wallets and have received large tax reliefs and other measures that have helped just that group. One can ask whether that prioritization has been correct.
It also affects the work on perhaps our time's greatest issue that we handle in the Committee on Justice. It is about breaking down organized crime, creating safety on streets and squares, and breaking down gang crime. This belongs together. It is connected to creating a strong, safe society, and then entire cities must function.
It is not possible to conduct a policy that favors certain groups. We must ensure that the school functions, that we protect the social services from warnings and layoffs, and that we conduct a housing policy that repairs our residential areas where people can find an affordable and good home and feel a pride for their residential area. Then, together with an expanded police force and an expanded repressive justice chain with tougher measures, one can combat gangs.
I return to the question about Stockholm. I have held a discussion with the Minister for Justice in the chamber during these two years. Now we have come halfway. I can accept the argumentation from almost two years ago when I asked the question for the first time. What does the government intend to do to solve the police situation in Stockholm? Since the police expansion and the growth, we have seen that we still lack an average of a thousand police officers if one compares with other police regions.
The answer has been mixed between that it certainly is not the government's responsibility but previous governments' responsibility and that the Social Democrats in Stockholm City Hall should manage the whole thing better by hiring security guards. One can ask why the government consistently makes the work for the municipalities so difficult when it comes to maintaining a good economic policy.
Add then that we face and have great challenges in Stockholm with particularly neglected residential areas, with high crime and specific incidents that also drain [resources]. Here the perspective comes in that it means many police officers are forced into short jobs and operations in the Stockholm region and have to leave the services they have around the country.
The question remains: When will the government conduct a Stockholm-positive policy and resolve the police situation? I agree with the minister that the focus is on local presence. But when will the government, in the regulatory letters, point out that we need the thousand police officers that Stockholm is behind on?
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Mr. Speaker! First, I would like to thank Lars Isacsson for the opportunity to discuss these important issues today, which may perhaps be partially cut short by a tax policy debate in Stockholm. We shall see if I can sort out the issues.
I intend to start by focusing on what I consider to be important in Lars Isacsson's question. How do we ensure a substantial police presence throughout the country? It is completely fundamental.
Now we are investing an incredible amount in the Swedish police. We are making record-breaking investments over a long period, and some of the investments involve record-breaking growth. The entire legitimacy of that investment is that the citizens in their everyday lives truly experience that safety is increasing. This applies regardless of whether they live in Södermalm, in Farsta, in Malung, or in Örnsköldsvik.
Therefore, it is very important for us when we make the investment to ensure continued growth in a number of different ways. We do this by investing in both the police and the police's conditions, including the conditions for aspirants. There, we enabled the first pay increase for aspirants since 2002. It is actually a quite staggering thought that their conditions have not improved for such an incredibly long time.
We also combine this with very clear steering of the police in all respects in the budget, in regulatory letters, and in authority dialogue. We follow up very continuously that this growth shall occur locally. The police have, during the past year, with various internal steering instruments already ensured that a large part of the net growth ends up out locally. By that, we mean visible, informed police.
The second thing I want to clarify is the great journey the police have made regarding gang crime. Shootings have decreased by 30 percent since 2022, and the crime clearance rate regarding fatal shootings has risen to over 70 percent. It is a magnificent development over a couple of years.
The same journey must be made with the crime that affects citizens in everyday life. There, we have unfortunately inherited a situation where the crime clearance rate is terribly low in very many cases. Of course, the police must respond to emergency alarms. But the police must also prove that they can resolve crimes such as thefts, snatchings, assaults, and robberies.
It is the kind of thing that affects citizens in their everyday lives. This also applies to other types of crime, such as violence against women and other things. All of this must happen through the visible local presence but also the local presence on the inside, so that qualified investigative resources are available locally.
I do not intend to interfere in how police regions decide to organize their operations locally. I have no problem at all agreeing with the experience that Lars Isacsson conveys. For the citizens, a local open police station is a strong symbol of a present justice system and a present state. It is an issue that I am happy to follow up on without, for that reason, interfering in exactly how the police choose to organize their operations.
I will conclude by saying something about Stockholm, as that also came up. Very many Stockholmers receive a tax cut with the government's policy. I believe they appreciate that very much. Possibly they feel a bit cheated on the buffet because the tax cuts are wiped out by the tax increases that the Social Democrats deliver in good order in Stockholm.
Of course, security guards cannot replace the police. I have never demanded that Stockholm should hire many new security guards. Perhaps the situation would have been slightly better if they hadn't dismissed everyone. I will certainly ensure that the growth of the local police presence also takes place in Stockholm. That is what Stockholmers have the right to expect from the state.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you to the Minister for Justice for the answer.
I agree with the Minister for Justice when he says that the legitimacy of the police operation, which we agree on, depends on the citizens noticing it all over the country. I can understand that the Minister for Justice says that he does not want to interfere. I can also think that there is a certain frustration in that. I believe that we need more state governance, more of the government pointing out what is wanted, and more governance of the organization.
I was involved during the police reorganization in 2014-2015. The intentions were good. More was also supposed to come out to the local police areas. The municipal council chairman had a certain skepticism when the municipalities were merged into a larger police area. It did not result in more police out there. The National Audit Office and Brå have seen that it has been missed to get police out to the periphery and that you are growing more in central positions.
It is clear that good intentions are not enough if the results are not visible to the citizens. I want to highlight one local example. In western and northern Dalarna, we often see a single police patrol on an area equivalent to Skåne.
It is not just a question of safety but also of the working environment for the police. How is one supposed to handle the acute interventions and at the same time work on crime prevention? Imagine, for example, a police patrol in Mora on a Saturday that is ordered to assist Mora Hospital with the transport of an acutely ill patient to the acute psychiatry in Säter. It is a 13-mile one-way journey. Upon arriving in Säter, a priority 1 alarm comes in. There are no other cars, so the patrol must drive with blue lights the 13 miles back to Mora from Säter.
How can a society become safe in that way? How are you supposed to get anyone to want to work as a police officer with that work environment? And how do you get a healthcare system that works? A society is never stronger than its weakest link, and the state's presence in these areas is already weak.
When local police stations are closed, the message is clear: the State is backing away. For the residents, it means longer journeys to get help and an increased feeling of being forgotten. This feeling of being left behind exists both in cities and in the countryside, in suburbs and in industrial towns.
Mr. Speaker! The Minister for Justice points to the increased resources for police training and for the Swedish Police Authority. This is welcome, but we cannot wait for several years for the resources to yield an effect. What does the government intend to do here and now to ensure that the local police areas are not further weakened? What is being done to ensure that more police in outer service also means more police in rural municipalities such as Leksand, Rättvik, and Orsa?
Mattias Vepsä (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister of Justice, for the answer! I think it underscores my thesis that we have a government that does not see the need to solve the problems of Stockholmers. This, in turn, could also be part of the solution to what Lars Isacsson has raised in his interpellation: a police presence and a sense of security throughout the country. This belongs together.
I ask a simple question: When can we see measures to ensure that the thousand missing police officers in the Stockholm region are put in place?
It is also interesting to see how the government tries to blacken the capital. If the Moderaterna had had the opportunity to rule both in Stockholm City Hall and at the government level, we would have seen draconian cuts in schools, in social services, and in leisure activities. The question is how that would have increased safety around in the city where I and my friends live and where our voters live.
It is claimed that we have dismissed every single security guard and safety guard. That is not true either. On the other hand, funds have been allocated to Stockholm's districts so that they can work in the way that is found best at the local level. It can be safety wardens, security guards, security cameras, more social workers or field workers, and interventions to break new recruitment at younger ages. It is such things that allow us to increase safety.
The latest is that after a short time in Stockholm, we see how safety is increasing and how vulnerability to violence is decreasing. We see how the drug scenes are being closed. What would be good would be that we joined forces and that the government gave all municipalities in Sweden – even the large municipality – a chance to reduce recruitment to gangs and violence and get the drugs off the streets by realizing that more police are needed in Stockholm. With that, I wish for more action and more speed than we have seen so far during the parliamentary term.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Mr. Speaker! Let us begin with Stockholm and then move out into the country.
I agree that very great progress is being made regarding safety in Stockholm. Stockholm and other large cities have been hit hard, not least by the violence of gang crime. Pleasantly enough, we see from 2022 onwards that the fatal shootings are decreasing, which has an incredibly great significance in terms of the vulnerability to violence for the citizens in Stockholm. We also see how the crime clearance rate is increasing.
The stay bans that the government pushed through in February last year have indeed brought about an incredibly large change also for the people of Stockholm. I have personally been to many places around the country, including Rågsved, which is not so far from where I live myself. Rågsved has been an open drug scene, dominated by criminals, for an enormous number of years. Through the new tools that the government has pushed through in the form of preventive stay bans, the drug scene has been shut down. The dangerous elements are gone, and the citizens come forward. Parents can send their children to school without having to be afraid of drug sales. Business owners even dare to stay open during the evening.
So yes, it is a fantastic change - and it is largely due to reforms that this government has put in place and a fantastic job by capable police officers in Stockholm. And they are going to get more colleagues. When we now, through the government's management, ensure that the net growth in the police is to take place locally, it covers Stockholm to a very high degree.
I take full responsibility for the two years that I have been Minister for Justice. I only note that from the police reform in 2015 until 2022, when we took over, there was no growth of police officers in Stockholm. This cannot reasonably be blamed on this government. Now we are in the process of redirecting all of this, and the people of Stockholm can truly count on that the growth will finally come to them. We see good opportunities that it will also be that way.
I am not engaging in any black-painting whatsoever; I am simply stating facts. It was Mattias Vepsä who claimed that I said that low police presence would be compensated by hiring more security guards. I merely answered that it is a reality that in Stockholm, after the change of power, two out of three security guards have been phased out. It is not black-painting, it is just a statement of facts.
I believe that this, overall, is bad for safety work. This also applies to the important safety work to be carried out in the field by social workers, field workers, and others who receive greater safety in their daily lives. Employees in Stockholm have also testified that the absence of security guards reduces the possibility for other important work in the field, for example, social and crime-preventive work.
Well, this is in no way a way of saying that the police should hand over their duties to others, but rather the opposite. The police growth must now finally also reach the people of Stockholm. This is what we are now ensuring, both from the government's side and in the Police Authority.
Then we come to the rest of the country. I just want to emphasize that I completely agree with the description that Lars Isacsson makes. I believe that the legitimacy of this initiative and the taxpayers' willingness to invest in the police in this way in the long term is based on seeing a locally present police regardless of where one lives.
Everyone understands, however, that the distances will be longer in the interior of Västerbotten and in western Dalarna than they are inside an urban area. We can never fully compensate for the geographical differences. But it is naturally never acceptable that it should take several hours to get a police resource to an emergency call.
I therefore just want to say that what the government is now doing in the short term - the last question Lars Isacsson had - is that with our steering of the police, ensure that the net growth that is now coming out reaches our local police areas fully and does not get stuck at the waist or the top of the organization.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to the Minister for the answer and the debate!
Police presence throughout the country is not a question of city versus country, but about both city and country. When it comes to more local police everywhere, it is clear that all of Sweden benefits from open drug scenes being shut down and from network police being present.
The Minister of Justice spoke about the interior of Västerbotten. I have been on a study visit in Lycksele and the police area Södra Lappland. People think there are large distances in Dalarna, but there are much longer distances there - 43 miles to the Norwegian border! It is clear that it affects them if 11 percent of the staff are constantly in Stockholm for special incidents. We need more police out there.
We have now had an important discussion about police presence and the state's responsibility for safety throughout the country. I want to thank the minister for clarifying the government's ambitions and initiatives. But as I have said before, ambitions are not sufficient if they are not translated into concrete and visible results for the citizens.
As has been said, it is not reasonable that in 60 percent of Sweden's municipalities there are more employees at Systembolaget than there are police officers. An increased police presence is necessary for the police to be a part of society, identify problem areas, and work proactively to prevent crime. By having the police present, it is possible to prevent, deter, and solve crimes to a greater extent than today. A 24/7 present police force in all of Sweden's 290 municipalities also increases confidence in the justice system.
Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister of Justice for the debate, and I hope that the Minister takes this discussion with him and ensures that the measures he has described actually reach out across the entire country. Sweden needs a police presence that makes a difference in every municipality and for every citizen, regardless of where they live.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Lars Isacsson for the opportunity to discuss these important issues. Thanks also to Mattias Vepsä for the opportunity to discuss them from a Stockholm perspective!
Let me first be very concrete and just mention those specific incidents in, above all, but not only, larger cities. It is quite true that they have entailed a shift of police resources from the countryside to the big cities, simplified a bit. It is not always that the flows go in that way, but one can still say that over time it has had an impact on the local police presence out in the country.
Now the police leadership has announced that they intend to bring that part of the operation back to the ordinary operations. It will also affect the police officers who are loaned out for long periods. That is well the problem: In an acute special incident, one may need to move resources. That flexibility is a great strength, but if it becomes a permanent arrangement, it will not quite be as intended. The idea is that during the year, they are now to phase this out and return to a normal arrangement.
It also means that the police presence in, for example, Stockholm must be resolved in other ways. It underlines the importance of the issues that were raised in the exchange with Mattias Vepsä: It must also be ensured that this does not have unreasonable consequences, but that the local police presence can, on the contrary, also increase in other ways in the big city.
For my part, I originally come from Örnsköldsvik and follow this issue very closely in my contact with the police in Örnsköldsvik and also through Örnsköldsviks Allehanda's ongoing monitoring of how the police growth develops in Örnsköldsvik. There, the forecasts look very positive. New police officers are arriving all the time. But I will also ensure that my local perspective is not limited to my own hometown, but that we will also have an overview of western Dalarna, the inland of Västerbotten, and all other parts of the country.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.