Response to interpellation 2024/25:627 on the closure of police stations in Blekinge

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Heléne Björklund, for the opportunity to discuss these issues today!

Heléne Björklund has asked me how I view the decision to close the police stations in Olofström and Sölvesborg and what dialogue has been held with the affected municipalities. Heléne Björklund has also asked me if I and the government intend to introduce some form of minimum level for locally anchored police presence.

I hear that Lars Isacsson has also joined the debate, so I imagine that, as it develops, we will broaden the geography to also include a number of municipalities in Dalarna.

Let me first underline the obvious: For the government, it is a very high-priority issue to increase the local police presence. An expression of this is the clear mandate for change that the government gave to the Commissioner of the Swedish Police when she took office one and a half years ago. This involves, among other things, ensuring precisely a locally visible and safety-creating police force and good service to the citizens.

In the regulatory letter for 2025, the government has also given the Swedish Police Authority several reporting requirements in the area.

The government is working very purposefully and systematically to achieve an increased police density in Sweden and to ensure that it corresponds to at least the average in the EU. To enable such continued police growth and strengthen the conditions for police recruits, we have only in this year's budget (prop. 2024/25:1) added just over one billion kronor. This is not least about raising the recruit salaries, which have been unchanged since 2002. It must be Northern Europe's worst real wage development, but it did at least result in an increase from 15,000 to 23,000 kronor through the reform.

The government has also announced that those studying at the police academy from and including the autumn of 2024 shall, under certain conditions and terms, have their student loans waived or repaid. In March, an investigator was commissioned to take a position on in what way those who have studied at the police academy shall have their education paid for.

When it comes to the location and staffing in individual localities, those are decisions made by the Swedish Police Authority. It is, of course, the authority that has the best conditions to assess where police stations should be located and how service and accessibility can be provided in the best way. This does not, of course, prevent the questions raised from being justified, but it is, despite everything, the division of labor we have.

For me and the government, it is central that the expectation in the investment we are making in police growth is that it will truly be visible in more uniformed police officers in local service. If we combine that with a clear steering towards the local level and the local problem area, the Swedish Police Authority is expected to continue increasing its local presence across the entire country.

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Heléne Björklund (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thanks to Gunnar Strömmer for the answer!

The best thing I know after a work week here in Stockholm is to go home to Blekinge. It is a county with five municipalities. The two smallest municipalities, Sölvesborg, where I myself live, and Olofström, now risk being left without a police station.

In these two municipalities, I do not know everyone, but I know very many people. There are not that many inhabitants, but they are very hardworking. There are very many small business owners who work and strive and have a great commitment to their local community. Not infrequently, they are also very active in the association life. Through that, they make our local communities flourish. They do great good for society.

But the crime that has crept into our small towns and our communities has created a growing mistrust, a greater fear of crime and thus also a great sensitivity to the issue. That makes this issue central right now. Therefore, the municipal leaders, regardless of party affiliation, together with the business community, the voluntary sector, and the police have worked very hard to maintain safety and carry out preventive measures.

I hear what the Minister is saying. I share the ambition that we should have more police in outer service. One of the stated goals with the police reform was exactly this. But creating safety is not just about having more uniformed persons. The local state presence, in this case through a police station, also means very much.

Now reality is moving in another direction. Police stations are being closed all over Sweden: in Hallstavik, Rättvik, Leksand and Vansbro and now also in Sölvesborg, Olofström and probably more municipalities. The Minister refers to the fact that this is the agency's responsibility. But it is still the government that has responsibility for the agency. One could indeed have a discussion about how many stations one should have and what the minimum level should be.

I would like to dwell for a short moment on the feeling I began by describing. I know that Gunnar Strömmer agrees with me that we live in a time when mistrust, alienation, suspicion towards decision-makers – not least in Stockholm – and the feeling that no one sees or listens is increasing. I would say that this can be extra palpable in small communities. One feels forgotten. I am personally afraid of such decisions, which cause that feeling to grow.

In Blekinge, we also received the unwanted gift that a state service office will also be closed. It was a gift we did not want from the government. Now a sense of insecurity is spreading, and suspicion is growing. Even though the number of police officers is increasing, the number of police stations is decreasing. Now it is Sölvesborg's and Olofström's turn.

My question to the Minister of Justice remains: Does the Minister of Justice intend to take any initiatives in this matter?

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Lars Isacsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Justice and the interpellator Heléne Björklund for the opportunity to debate local police presence. I have had the privilege of debating this with the Minister for Justice previously, and I am happy to do so again. I became particularly concerned about it following a debate I had with Civil Minister Erik Slottner regarding state presence. There, he claimed that the police presence had increased across the country.

I asked the Riksdag's investigation service to look a bit closer at this. In recent months, the police in my home county of Dalarna have only closed visitor receptions in Leksand, Rättvik, and Vansbro, while the national figures show that police personnel are increasing across the country. According to the County Administrative Board's mapping, there were 265 visitor offices in 236 municipalities in 2021, but in 2024 there were 231 offices in 204 municipalities. In three years, there had therefore been 32 more municipalities that lacked visitor offices. It is a clear trend of withdrawal of state presence.

I am aware of the Minister of Justice's and the National Police Commissioner's priorities, and I truly share them. I think it is good to increase the local police presence. But at the same time, one sees that it is not heading in the right direction. Brås evaluation of the goal of 10,000 more police officers shows that it is in the local police areas that one grows the least. In the most sparsely populated parts of Sweden, the growth is only half as large as in other parts of the country.

Another problem is that it is almost impossible for the general public to follow the developments. The Police Authority, in fact, has no accepted definition of what a police station is. That also makes it difficult, I assume, for the government to govern or monitor the developments. When it comes to other blue-light activities, the regional ambulance services and the municipal rescue services, there are clear structures, responsibilities, and measures to monitor. But when it comes to the police's local presence, one fumbles in the dark as a citizen – and also as a decision-maker, I imagine.

Mr. Speaker! My question to the Minister for Justice is whether he sees a problem with the overview and management towards the prioritized goals of increased local police presence in the country.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I thank both the interpellor from Blekinge and the Member of Parliament from Dalarna for the opportunity to discuss these important issues today.

There has been a growth in the police over the last ten-year period, but it has occurred to all too small an extent in the local communities. One can say, somewhat simplified, that it has occurred at the waist and upwards in the Swedish Police Authority. It is clear that this goes directly against what was, in any case, one of the intentions with the police reform in 2015: to strengthen the local police presence. One can say that we have had a lost decade when it comes to local growth. Therefore, when we now redirected the management of the police, we have been very clear that it must be ensured that growth occurs locally.

Then other trade-offs arise. Naturally, we do not want to do this at the expense of activities that are not necessarily anchored in a local office but which are completely significant for everyone regardless of where they live. I will just take one example. It is a fact that a large part of the recruitment of children and young people occurs digitally. It is clear that effective combating of that problem, which to a large extent belongs to the local problem picture, does not necessarily occur in a reception in an individual municipality. There may be a strong interest in pooling resources, for example regionally, but admittedly against a very local problem picture.

The police justify this type of measure by stating that they focus less on buildings and more on the number of police officers, the number of cars out, equipment, and visibility. I will soon confirm your problem description, but I first want to give the police's description a bit of fairness. Blekinge is a fantastic county. My mother comes from Karlskrona. In Blekinge, one has the advantage of having relatively short geographical distances. I compare it with my home region. In the interior of Västerbotten, it was for a long time the case that one police car patrolled an area twice as large as Denmark. It is clear that it is a different kind of problem. We have a certain sensitivity for how the police think about how to organize themselves in an effective way. When it comes to Dalarna, I know that it is meant that there have been limited opening hours, quite few visits, and so on. I am saying this, therefore, to give the police a bit of fairness.

With that said, I nevertheless understand the questions raised regarding the symbolic and practical significance of there actually being a place in a municipality where the police are visible, even if only with a sign on the door. I have raised these questions with the Police Authority in that light. I also know many municipal councilors across the country who share that view, regardless of party affiliation.

I have full respect for the fact that it is the authority that must make these decisions, and I actually have no reason to distrust the basis for how one thinks when prioritizing resources. But I believe it is extremely important for the long-term credibility and legitimacy of this growth that the citizens and the police have the same perception of what is required for the local presence to be tangible and truly long-term legitimate and safety-creating. I have fed this back to the police.

I thank you again for the opportunity to discuss these issues today, and I will take everything that is said with me into the continued dialogue with the Police Authority.

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Heléne Björklund (S)

Mr. Speaker! It may be that we have slightly shorter geographical distances in Blekinge, Minister of Justice. But I still want to describe the feeling of state activities disappearing, that we feel abandoned, and what that feeling results in.

It was a long time ago that the district court left Sölvesborg and Olofström. It was a long time ago that Arbetsförmedlingen disappeared, and Försäkringskassan has disappeared. Now the government has also decided to remove service offices. The police is the last state outpost if we do not count in Systembolaget, and we do not know if that will also disappear. We shall see how it goes with that question.

I want to describe that it is something that worries me. It is not just a symbol issue. It could be that. It is a sign that signals some kind of security. I spoke about all our entrepreneurs who contribute so much to society. They feel that they want to get things back.

When reporting a crime, one wants the police to come or to be able to go to a police station. If one reports a crime that is very sensitive, one might not want to do it over the phone or travel to other places in the county, but rather want to go to one's local police station. I believe that it can even affect the willingness to report a crime if one does not feel that one can do it locally.

That safety is fundamental. It is a right we should have in Sweden. The police station symbolizes that. I wish the government could say: We will, of course, have at least some kind of office in every municipality. It would have been a social contract that would have been appreciated by both the opposition and citizens across the entire country. It is a right.

Now the Minister for Justice refers to the Swedish Police Authority. Let us then be clear. The Swedish Police Authority is an agency that is subordinate to the government and the Ministry of Justice, which the Minister for Justice is responsible for. The government can direct it through regulatory letters. It is possible to state how you want it to be.

Even though it is the authority that formally makes the decisions today, it is the minister's responsibility to ensure that the police are located throughout the country and that we reach the goals we have set. Here, the results speak for themselves. Police stations are disappearing right now, among other places in Sölvesborg and in Olofström and in many other places. It creates an insecurity.

Now the minister says that the government prioritizes local presence. But it is not visible. It is under you, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer, that there will be fewer police stations. It will stand in the testament for your term, and during your shift in the position, it has been scaled back.

I have several figures on this. But I believe that Gunnar Strömmer has both seen and heard it several times. That is what has happened. My colleague brought up figures from 2021–2024. Those are quite large reductions of both police reception desks and visitor stations for the police.

My question to Gunnar Strömmer remains: What does the minister intend to do to ensure that the police stations remain?

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Lars Isacsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you to the Minister of Justice for the answer! I agree with much of what the Minister said.

Both Heléne Björklund and I were chairpersons of the municipal executive board in 2015. For my part in Dalarna, the first thing that happened was that different local police areas were merged. I can promise that I was also quite critical of the centralization back then.

What Member Björklund highlighted was that trust in the state is so much more than a symbolic issue. The police are also a symbol for Sweden, and one feels that one is being left out.

If one does not succeed with the goal that the Minister for Justice has, which we share, and which the Police Commissioner has, then the debate about municipal police will arise. Next week, there is a seminar here in the Riksdag about municipal police, held by fellow members from the Justice Committee from M and KD. Those ideas also exist in our party.

I do not think it is a better solution. I think it is better with a police authority and not different levels. I understand that it is about legitimacy for the system and that people think it is better if the municipalities get to handle it themselves, but I believe that it is wrong.

We must succeed with this. It is not reasonable that in 60 percent of Sweden's municipalities, there are more employees at Systembolaget than police officers. One can also look at the mission that the state has given to all municipalities to be able to have a municipal rescue service on standby around the clock. All 290 municipalities manage it. They cooperate with others, but they manage it. Then the state should also be able to have police in all 290 municipalities visibly and present.

Mr. Speaker! Thank you to the Minister for the debate. We are happy to work together with the Minister to reach the goal of increased police presence throughout the country.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for that! I just want to confirm the importance of local growth. We shouldn't anticipate the will, but honestly, my own will is not the first thing I am focusing on. It would be as if it were about my own person.

I can only state that the situation I took over was one where police growth did not occur locally. Now we show negative figures by a large margin. We are now turning around and ensuring that the lion's share of the supply of new police officers takes place in our local police areas. That development shall continue.

I will be honest and say that I am more focused on that question than exactly in which building the police are located, as long as the police can credibly ensure that those police officers can actually be of use close to the citizens.

In every case, regarding a part of the receptions that have been discontinued, one can look very concretely at what premises it concerns. It could be an apartment a few flights up that is not accessible to the citizens. In some other case, it could be a slot that is perhaps open two hours a week where sporadic contact with the citizens takes place.

It is difficult for me to underestimate the police's assessments that it might also be more effective from the citizens' perspective to organize the operations in a different way. Therefore, I am very focused on ensuring that there is growth in the local police areas so that we can truly ensure that the curve of black figures continues.

Since then, I am fully aware that local police areas no longer coincide with municipal boundaries. I know that when the police say the objective is to have a proper police station per local police area, it can be understood in a case like in Blekinge – where there is a local police area that covers Karlshamn, Olofström, and Sölvesborg – to mean that there will be a station in Karlshamn.

I find it very easy to understand that not least the one who is a local representative in relation to the citizens, who still thinks in municipal terms and not in police areas, can experience it as a major deficiency in relation to the police.

If we have a serious ambition that citizens should experience increased safety, it is probably not entirely goal-rational to only measure in the number of buildings.

It concerns in particular if it can be an apartment a few flights up that is not accessible to the citizens and that is only open a couple of hours a week or gaps in a door where, in practice, very sporadic contacts occur and where a rational police work cannot be conducted.

There are also examples where a local station has been closed where, in practice, there were a couple of investigators. If we are to gain power in the investigations against crime, we know now that we must pool the resources, combine the cases, and work in a systematic way.

It is an important explanation for why the clearance of crimes in fatal shootings has gone from 15 percent to over 70 percent. We must also deliver real safety to the citizens.

I still want to land on what you are raising. I am convinced that you have important points in that. Both actual and perceived safety also concern the physical presence, that there is a sign on the door which one naturally wants to be matched by an actual operation.

I also believe that there is a question of legitimacy in this. It is about whether the citizens can trust in the future that there is a police presence in their municipality.

I nevertheless want to emphasize that I will continue to raise that aspect of the issue with the Police Authority without, for that reason, crossing the line into improper governance. I believe that every such decision should be thought through.

I also understand that when agency after agency leaves a municipality, as was described here, it becomes a bigger issue than that of the individual agency. Then it is about the state, the public, presence in the local community.

As has been said, there is much in what has been highlighted that is worth taking further, also in my relationship with and governance of the Swedish Police Authority.

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Heléne Björklund (S)

Mr. Speaker! The Minister for Justice spoke about police officers who were located in apartments and that it is not much better. No, it is absolutely not. But in the two examples I raised, it is not in that way, but it is premises for which I myself have been involved in discussing solutions, which have been security-adapted and so on.

I think the obvious answer from the Minister would be: No, we are not going to have police officers sitting in apartments that are not accessible to citizens, because we then cannot call it either a reception or a police station. But that is not what we are talking about here.

Traveling to the neighboring municipality or perhaps even further, which we have to do in all other state matters, also takes time. This may lead to fewer people making that journey, which creates an injustice in the country. I also want to assert that it is not everyone who manages the digital technology. There are elderly people, people with disabilities, and other people who do not manage it and who really need to meet a human being regarding both other state activities and police activities.

I continue to assert that it is also a safety-promoting measure to have a local police station, regardless of what one calls it.

I thank you for the discussion and note that the Minister does not give a clear statement as to whether he will work to ensure that the police stations in Olofström and Sölvesborg will remain. He argues, on the contrary, that one needs to pool resources. I regret that.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I am also glad for the opportunity to discuss these issues today. However, I do not quite appreciate having words put into my mouth. I have not stated exactly how the resources should be pooled in Blekinge or in the relevant locations. My point is rather that it is not my task to do so. Those assessments must be made by the Swedish Police Authority.

However, I have thought it important to do justice to the members' arguments. There is a lot in them, and I understand the question of legitimacy, the question of security – both the actual aspect and the perceived aspect of it – and the broader dimension of state presence. All of that is worth expressing recognition for, because there is a lot in it. I also understand where the discussion about, for example, municipal police comes from, and there is a lot in that as well.

I say, if not every day, in any case every week, both at the Ministry of Justice and in relation to the Police Authority, that one must look at this issue as a municipal council member. It is the municipal council members who meet the citizens in everyday life and who, in practice, are held accountable for what happens locally. One should not distance oneself from that perspective on the issue.

If we are to discuss the issue objectively, I believe we have a shared responsibility to deliver as much security as possible to the citizens in the country, regardless of where they live. There are, of course, more dimensions than the reception door. I also believe that this must be taken to heart.

I imagine that none of us want a one-sided focus on buildings if it occurs at the expense of actual safety. If one, for example, judges that it is important to pool a certain resource in order to be able to solve more crimes, in order to have a pooled resource for increased availability, and in order to be able to work more rationally where the crimes are, these should naturally also be arguments to be valued in the discussion.

No, I have not expressed myself on how the police work should be organized in Sölvesborg, in Olofström, or anywhere else in Blekinge or for that matter in Dalarna. I simply think that the police's assessments are also worthy of some respect. If we are to be able to jointly deliver safety to the citizens, those arguments must be heard and the Police Authority's assessments weighed against them. I am prepared to continue to raise it in the governance of the Police Authority.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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