Response to interpellation 2025/26:145 on training for police officers regarding domestic violence
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 M argues that education on violence in close relationships is already mandatory for police and civilian investigators 1. 1 M argues that the government has tasked authorities with strengthening operational cooperation against men's violence against women 1. 2 M argues that the police own the tools to increase the volume of the in-depth educational work and that the government follows up on this through regulatory letters 2. 3 M argues that the competence a person subjected to violence encounters should not be dependent on their zip code 3. 3 M argues that other actors within healthcare and social services should conduct a critical review of their responsibility to create a preventive systemic force against femicide 3. 4 M argues that every femicide is a societal failure and that several actors must cooperate and work in a different way to address the problem 4. 4 M argues that the government has been clear that the mobilization against organized crime must not occur at the expense of the development power within everyday crime or violence in close relationships 4. 4 M argues that the police's review points to a need for competence and experience in investigations, which should be followed up with concrete changes 4. 5 6 SD argues that the basic training is not sufficient and that national requirements for in-depth competence are lacking 5 6. 6 SD argues that the lack of specialized training leads to variations in legal certainty between regions 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! Sara Gille has asked me what measures I intend to take to ensure that education on violence in close relationships becomes a mandatory and self-evident part of the police training and of the continuing education for already active police officers. She has also asked me if I intend to take the initiative for national requirements on competence-enhancing measures for the entire police force in order to increase legal certainty for crime victims, and how I intend to ensure that the police's work against violence in close relationships receives sufficient resources and priority so that more lives can be saved.
I want to start by thanking Sara Gille both for the question and for the commitment to the issue, a commitment that I and the government fully share. Men's violence against women is one of our society's greatest ongoing failures. It must be fought on a broad front and with full force.
The education on violence in close relationships and men's violence against women is already mandatory within the framework of the police training. In the same way, it is mandatory for all civilian investigators and employees at the Police Authority who have investigative measures in their duties to undergo basic training at the beginning of their employment. The authority's basic training includes a part on particularly vulnerable crime victims, which in turn includes violence in close relationships and men's violence against women.
After completed basic training at the Swedish Police Authority, there are advanced courses on particularly vulnerable crime victims within the framework of the continuing education. The Authority has also developed methodological support with associated checklists that are used in investigations of domestic violence, crimes against children, and sexual crimes against adults. However, there are no national requirements for competence-enhancing measures.
The Government is clear in its management of the Swedish Police Authority. Men's violence against women and violence in close relationships shall be combated with full force. Among other things, the Government therefore decided in June 2024 to task the Swedish Police Authority, the Swedish Prosecution Authority, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, and the National Board of Health and Welfare to strengthen operational cooperation to prevent and combat men's violence against women, violence in close relationships, and honor-related violence and oppression, including cases where children are involved. In June this year, the Swedish Police Authority reported a mission aimed at strengthening the competence of police officers to meet individuals with mental illness in cases of violence in close relationships. It is a solid piece of work that has been done to develop the already existing course offerings with associated educational materials.
The Government has also tasked the Gender Equality Authority and Uppsala University, more specifically the National Centre for Women's Peace at Uppsala University, with the assignment of developing a web support regarding the causes, extent, and consequences of violence with a particular focus on the justice system. The web support was launched in September this year and has a section specifically aimed at police officers. In addition, the Crime Victim Authority, on behalf of the Government, has developed a web-based training aimed at actors in the justice system that covers knowledge of children's rights according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, i.e., the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and children's vulnerability to violence, including honor-related violence and oppression.
The Police Authority also has a reporting requirement in this year's regulatory letter to report on the development work being carried out in order to improve the ability to investigate and prevent men's violence against women, crimes against children, as well as honor-related violence and oppression. The authority shall also report on how the prosecution of deadly violence and men's violence against women has developed so that we can better measure the police's results over time.
The government will also continue to work against men's violence against women on a broad front and with full force. In this, the governance of the Swedish Police Authority is an important tool. It is about combating serious crimes but also about upholding safety, freedom, integrity, and equality.
Sara Gille (SD)
Mr. Speaker! I want to begin by thanking the Minister for the answer.
It is very good that we have this basic training on violence in close relationships and that it, as the Minister mentions, is included in the mandatory basic training for police officers and civilian investigators. But it is not enough. It is not what Noa has flagged and warned about. Their criticism is not about the basic training. It is about the advanced, specialized competence required to handle these cases in a legally secure manner and that far too few police officers receive that specific training.
Basic training is just a basis – a foundation. When police meet a woman who has lived for years in normalized violence, when children tell fragmented stories about abuse, and when the perpetrator is manipulative and well-organized, a basic module in the training is not sufficient. In those cases, the advanced competence that Noa requests is required.
When it comes to this, the figures are unfortunately very clear. Last year, approximately 300 police officers had completed the advanced training on domestic violence and crime victims. That is, 300 police officers in an organization with over 23,000 police officers. It is the difference – the gap – that is the acute problem.
Basic training cannot teach everything. It is not possible. It cannot provide the entire toolbox required to recognize escalated violence, make these risk assessments, meet the victims in the right way, as well as secure evidence in the right way and lead investigations that actually hold up in a court. That is precisely why there are still warning signs that are missed, threat pictures that are underestimated, and assessments that do not capture the dynamics of the violence. Women are still dying – despite previous contact with the police and other authorities. That, Mr. Speaker, is the reality that shows that the mandatory basic training is not enough.
Brå has repeatedly shown the same thing: The violence is often repeated. Many perpetrators have been known to the police previously, and many women have already sought help time and again. Many of the murders had been preceded by contacts where the police lacked the prerequisites to make a correct assessment.
Every year, 13–20 women are killed by a man they have lived or live with. A number of these cases could have looked completely different if more police officers had the in-depth competence that Noa demands. That is why Noa speaks out, and that is why the issue must be raised. That is also why this interpellation is submitted.
My question is not whether the basic training exists. That is not what I am inquiring about, Mr. Speaker, for we know that it does. My question is: How does the government ensure that the advanced and specialized training that Noa calls for reaches more than just 300 police officers, so that those who stand on the front line have the advanced competence required to actually be able to save lives?
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Sara Gille, for the opportunity to discuss this pressing issue!
Now, the situation is that Noa is not only requesting this, but Noa also owns the measures. It is not the case that the Minister for Justice or the Government Offices need to intervene for Noa to be able to act on its own analysis and its own conclusion.
If it is the case that the police internally make the assessment that this in-depth and specialized training regarding these issues has not reached enough professional police officers and civil servants, then Noa – which is the national operational department within the police – and the Police Authority have all the possibilities to change this. It requires, so to speak, no specific intervention from the government's side.
Regarding the general ambition that has been expressed both in Noa's own analyses and in Sara Gille's question – that is, that we must ensure that within the Swedish Police Authority there is sufficient height, sufficient depth, and sufficiently many investigators and others who work with these issues – I gladly acknowledge that we have a general responsibility to stay on it, push on it, and follow up on this. We do that as well.
I explained quite extensively how we do it, namely through ongoing special government assignments and through what is in our regulatory letters, where there is a very extensive follow-up of these issues.
Overall, it appears to me that Sara Gille, Gunnar Strömmer, the National Operational Department, and the Commissioner of the Swedish Police are in complete agreement on the analysis of the problem. From the government's side, we follow up and direct this, and quite concretely, it is only up to the National Operational Department to put the shovel in the ground if they want to increase the volume in this work, as they are the ones who own the tools to achieve that. I will encourage and support this in every way possible.
Sara Gille (SD)
Mr. Speaker! The Minister describes in the response that the basic training on violence in close relationships is mandatory. That is good and very important. But what the Minister himself also notes is that there are no national requirements for the advanced competence development that is crucial for an equal and legally secure management. That is exactly where the problem lies. Basic training provides, as I mentioned earlier, a base, but it is the difficult, complex, and dangerous cases that require significantly more than a base.
It is here that the differences become clear between different regions. When advanced education is not mandatory, it becomes a question of cost and prioritization. This means that some regions invest and others do not. Some have specialist competence, and others lack it. This means that legal certainty varies very much depending on where the woman lives – what her zip code is.
It is an arrangement that we would never have accepted in other parts of the justice chain. No one, for example, would accept that rape investigations were held to different standards depending on the region or that drug cases were of different quality depending on geographical location. But when it comes to violence in close relationships, we allow exactly this to happen.
Brå shows that violence in close relationships is often repeated, that it is preceded by risk assessments that were repeatedly missed, and that the women who were killed in several cases had had previous contacts with the police.
I have personally met women who have told me that their reports were not taken seriously the first time, that the threat was not assessed correctly, that evidence was not secured, and that the police arrived only when it was already too late. I have personally experienced this, that is, calling the police and then not receiving the help and the support one needs to get away from there. Instead, one is left behind time and again, and then it becomes worse because one was actually the one who alerted the police. This in turn leads to that one does not dare to alert. It just gets worse. It is not worth it. No one sees, no one hears, and no one cares.
Brå has for several years pointed out differences in quality, differences in risk assessments, differences in follow-up, and differences in prosecution rates. We know at the same time that men's violence against women is one of our most recurring and deadly crime areas. The statistics regarding this are tragic.
On average, 13–20 women are killed every year by a man they have lived with or are living with. In several of the recent cases, there have been previous warning signs. There have been contacts where increased competence could have made a difference.
That is why national requirements were needed: to ensure that every vulnerable woman and every vulnerable child gets the same chance, regardless of which zip code they have. It is about being able to make decisions in the moment that determine a woman's and a child's chances of survival. That is why this interpellation is being posed.
Why should competence continue to depend on the regions' own priorities? Why does it not become a national requirement for advanced competence?
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Mr. Speaker! I agree with Sara Gille's description of the problem. That women are murdered within the framework of their relationships or by an ex is one of our society's ongoing, latent, and greatest failures – we know that. I think it is excellent that we can have this discussion and that we can have it on a well-qualified basis. The basis that we are now referring to in this discussion and which Sara Gille's interpellation is based on is an evaluation work that has been carried out within the police and which has been initiated by the police for the purpose of asking the question: What more can we do to avoid that 10–15 women every year are murdered in this way?
The conviction rates in the cases are 100 percent, so that is not the problem. The problem is that the harassment, the violence, and the threats go so far that it has the ultimate consequence of a woman being murdered.
The police have conducted an internal review which has shown a number of deficiencies in the individual cases they started from, and subsequently, they have analyzed what they could have done differently in order to be able to intervene in a more powerful way at an earlier stage. Part of that consists of competence-enhancing measures.
A self-evident conclusion of the underlying material is that the type of support and the competence a person exposed to violence encounters should not be dependent on postcode.
The police have thus produced this basis and also own the responsibility to make decisions on conclusions and implementation. But the fact that only just over 300 people have undergone the in-depth, skill-enhancing training, as the police themselves state, is problematic, and I am certain that very concrete conclusions will be drawn from it, not least regarding equality across the country.
Since Sara Gille is broadening the issue, I also want to say that it is excellent that the police are conducting this review of their own part in the problem, but that other actors in society must also do the same. This applies, for example, to information sharing. The police have looked at this where they themselves have been involved. But information about what is happening within the four walls of the home can also be held by social services and health and medical care, and a problem is that it often stays there. The police experience that in far too many cases they intervene too late because other actors in society have not stepped forward and proactively shared information to prevent harassment, threats, and violence from escalating.
An appeal from my side is therefore that other involved actors carry out a critical review of their part of the responsibility, similar to the one that the police have initiated, completed, and drawn conclusions from. This should occur within health and medical care, social services, and certainly also in other places. Only then can we achieve a preventive systemic power that can prevent this type of deeply serious problem and great vulnerability from leading to the ultimate and very dark outcome of 10, 12, 15 femicides of this character every year.
Sara Gille (SD)
Mr. Speaker! It does not help if the number of police officers increases if the competence does not follow. It does not help with regulatory letters if the regions do not succeed in converting them into real results on the front line.
We know that the police's investigations of domestic violence still have major flaws. During last year, more than 60 percent of the reports of assault in close relationships were dropped without prosecution.
In several of the femicides that have occurred over the last two years, there were previous reports, alarms, and contacts with authorities, but the handling was not sufficiently powerful.
When I myself called the police when it was very violent with my ex, I was questioned with my ex right next to me, which meant that I could not speak freely. The police, therefore, do not know how they should handle these cases.
This shows that the problem is not solely a lack of education. It is also about resources and about prioritization in everyday life. It is difficult to conduct risk assessments and build secure preliminary investigations when investigators are sitting with an unsustainable number of cases. It is difficult to act sharply when the conditions do not match the government's ambitions.
The government says that this should be prioritized, and then it must also be noticeable in practice. It should be noticeable in more specialized investigators, better staffed emergency services, and more police officers who can ask the complex questions. When will this happen? How does the government ensure that the steering signals specified in the regulatory letters do not stay in the desk drawer but are converted into concrete capacity that saves lives?
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Mr. Speaker! Let me state again that every femicide of this character is a great failure for society. That we annually have a latent level of 10, 12, 15, sometimes more femicides of this kind in Sweden over time is an ongoing and dark societal failure. It is a reality that if we are to be able to address this problem, we cannot continue as we have done until now because it will then go as it has gone until now; instead, a prerequisite is that several different actors who can influence this shift and work in a different way.
The government has been very clear in its direction to the police. All the mobilization occurring in relation to organized crime must in no way result in a loss of development power in other essential parts of the operations. This applies to both the so-called volume crimes, i.e., everyday crime, and the type of crime we are now talking about, i.e., men's violence against women and violence in close relationships.
The police's review, which I am referring to, is a result of both this management and the police's own insight that positions must be moved in a different way than before. In this review, where individual cases have been examined and it has been asked what could have been done differently to prevent the ultimate outcome, that is to say murder, it points out, among other things, competence and experience when it comes to investigations. This will, of course, be followed up with concrete changes.
Let me again underline the importance of other actors also performing corresponding screenings, for it is through an interaction between the police, social services, and health and medical care that it is possible to achieve a truly preventive power so that we can once and for all prevent these murders from occurring.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.