Response to interpellation 2025/26:439 on the shortage of police in Stockholm

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! Mattias Vepsä has asked me when I and the government intend to present an action plan to ensure more police in Stockholm.

In order to push back the serious crime and restore safety in society, the number of police officers and the local police presence must increase. Since the change of government in 2022, the number of police officers has increased by nearly 3,200. This can be compared with the approximately 2,000 that was the result during eight years with the Social Democrats in government. During the first term, that is under the previous government, we are talking about negative figures altogether.

Today, Sweden has the highest police density measured in Sweden in modern times, and the Police Authority shall continue to grow towards the goal that the police density shall at least correspond to the average in the EU. To reach that, the government has invested large resources in the growth and ensured that the police's appropriations have increased significantly to meet that part of the mission. We are expanding the police training and strengthening the economic conditions during the training. Police aspirants have received increased wages during the training, and recently we placed sharp proposals to enable a paid police training on the Riksdag's table. It is about making the police training more attractive but also about increasing the number of those who complete the training and stay in the profession for a longer period.

Police Region Stockholm contains a large proportion of the population. The region has several vulnerable areas and has also for a long time been exposed to and affected by the gross and ruthless gang violence. It is therefore very pleasing that more now want to become and work as police officers in Stockholm. For the first time in ten years, the number of police officers in police region Stockholm is increasing significantly. Since the change of government, Stockholm has received 628 more police officers. This can be compared with the development during the period 2015–2022, when the Socialdemokraterna were in power. The development was then negative, and there were approximately 130 fewer police officers in the region. Now, the training places are also being filled to a higher degree than before, and the high outflow of police officers from the region has decreased.

At the same time, it is of course important to keep the distribution of responsibility in mind. It is the Swedish Police Authority that is responsible for its internal organization, resource distribution, and staffing between regions and operations. The government's role is to set goals, follow up on results, and create good conditions for the authority to carry out its mission.

Against that background, I would like to highlight several measures of particular importance for the Stockholm police region that are already underway and which, in some cases, have been reinforced.

The government has, through regulatory letters and other steering signals, a clear focus on increasing the local presence of police and on a larger part of the growth taking place close to the citizens. The Commissioner of the Swedish Police has also clarified that the continued growth of police shall primarily take place locally and in field service. More specifically, 85 percent of the new police officers go straight out in uniform in field service close to the citizens, not least in Stockholm.

Polisregion Stockholm has, for its part, taken special measures to increase the attractiveness and reduce the barriers to working here in the region. This includes, among other things, economic incentives such as special salary supplements, targeted recruitment efforts, and measures to manage the well-known housing problem. All of this has long been an important factor for the region's low police growth. The Government is following this work closely in dialogue with the Police Authority.

Mattias Vepsä asks when the government intends to present an action plan to ensure more police in Stockholm. Let me be clear: The work to strengthen the police presence in Stockholm is already underway and is an integrated part of the government's collective management of the Police Authority.

It is about long-term and sustained measures rather than a single plan or a single decision – all of this to get more police who can work closely with citizens both in Stockholm and in other parts of the country. All of this we do so that Sweden shall become a safer, freer, and more just country to live in.

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

Mattias Vepsä (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister of Justice, for an answer that was good in some parts!

In other parts, I think we would still need exactly what I am requesting, namely an action plan for more police in Stockholm. The background is that Brå, which has evaluated police growth for many years, has pointed out precisely that we have a problem with the growth in Stockholm.

In the answer, which we have just been made aware of, it is presented as if the previous government did nothing. This is how it usually sounds when one debates with the Minister for Justice or other representatives for the Tidö Government. The year 2022 was year 0; then the world was on fire. Then a number of white knights entered the Government Offices, who have indeed done everything and a bit more to turn the development around.

I believe that very many people all around Sweden see that more should have been done to reverse the development in our country. We continue to have major problems with gang crime. The government's blind spot – breaking the recruitment – leaves much to be desired, to say the least. One has saved on school, social services, leisure activities and ordinary families, and one has increased unemployment.

This debate is about the government not having done enough to ensure the police's ability to work effectively in Stockholm, which is a large region. A quarter of Sweden's population lives in our region.

I just want to say something briefly before I ask a follow-up question. I perceive that the minister sounds quite satisfied with the last four years – good. But initially, I wonder in this debate: How would it be to look at one's own role regarding the situation that we have now?

When the Reinfeldt government resigned in 2014, it left behind a situation in the police with the lowest intake to the police academy during the entire 2000s. The Moderate government of Reinfeldt had even, at times, zeroed out the admissions to the police academy in the Stockholm region.

How would it be if someone somewhere in the Government Offices reflected on what it meant for Stockholm and for the possibility of developing the Police Authority just in our capital with the specific challenges that we see here?

In addition to the fact that a quarter of Sweden's inhabitants live here, there are approximately half of the police-designated disadvantaged residential areas in Stockholm. We have a large part of the gang crime. Despite the fact that it is good that the shootings are currently trending downwards, shootings continue, and half of the shootings occur in our city. During January 2025, 15 explosions occurred in Stockholm alone during this first month, and explosions continue. We also have major problems with recruitment.

When Brå looks at this, they mean that a plan and some form of responsibility are required for us to address the police shortage. Given how the expansion has proceeded, all other regions have grown, also in relation to population growth, but not Stockholm.

I therefore think it would be appropriate for the Minister to open up and take this opportunity, which I am requesting. Take this seriously! And it is not just about following the developments in dialogue with the regional police leadership and with the police leadership nationally.

I ask the question again: Will the minister be able to deliver an answer to the people of Stockholm regarding more police officers? Will the government look into the possibility of also producing an action plan to solve the police shortage in Stockholm, where there is a shortage of 1,000 police officers?

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

Martin Westmont (SD)

Mr. Speaker! As a resident of Stockholm, I felt motivated to participate in the debate.

The interpellor Mattias Vepsä requests, among other things, more police in outer service in the Stockholm municipality. The Tidö parties are working on this, as the Minister for Justice clearly presented in his answer. We are also aware of the importance of good cooperation between the police and security personnel. They complement each other to keep our streets, subways, and so on safe for the citizens.

This interpellation on the lack of police in Stockholm therefore raises some questions, Mr. Speaker, considering that the interpellant's party is also removing security personnel in Stockholm. The Social Democrats are in power here in the capital. In 2023, the party reduced the number of security guards from 180 to 60. It is an utterly inconceivable cut, which directly hit the safety of Stockholmers and visitors in the public space.

Mr. Speaker! Stockholm has become less safe with the Social Democrats' policy; I can personally testify to this as a resident here in the capital. One question to the interpellator is whether the member has directed any form of criticism towards their own party, which is actually ultimately responsible for Stockholm becoming less safe by reducing the number of security guards out in society.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I think it is quite brave of Mattias Vepsä to take the debate and raise this issue.

We agree that Stockholm needs more police. The problem is only that the Social Democrats' record regarding safety in Stockholm is a rarely gloomy story. During the Social Democrats' eight years in power, there was not a single new police officer in the Stockholm region in net – not a single one! On the contrary, the number of police in Stockholm decreased during these eight years by 130. Minus 130 was, therefore, the record after eight years of Social Democratic rule.

Now the Moderates and the government have turned this around. For the first time in ten years, the number of police officers in the Stockholm region is increasing, and significantly so. Since we took office in 2022, there have been 628 more police officers in Stockholm, to compare with the 130 fewer police officers that was the result when the Social Democrats ruled for a full eight years.

Furthermore, more police officers are entering the Stockholm region as early as this summer, and the plan moving forward involves continued steady growth with more police officers in outer service near the citizens around in municipalities and districts.

Nationally, the Moderaterna and the government are therefore delivering more police and also many new effective tools to the police. This includes, for example, the preventive stay bans, which are now shutting down open drug scenes around Stockholm and making area after area safer and more secure for the citizens. This is happening at the same time as the Socialdemokraterna locally in Stockholm are firing security guards, removing controllers in the subway, cutting bus lines, and underfunding social services.

So, that is the situation when the citizens go to the polls this autumn: either continued more police and increased safety with the Moderaterna or a turn to the left with the Socialdemokraterna, Miljöpartiet and Vänsterpartiet and more of the politics that has caused the problems, caused the police shortage and increased the insecurity.

It is undeniably a decisive choice for the future, and I truly look forward to continuing that debate.

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

Mattias Vepsä (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the follow-up questions from both Martin Westmont and the Minister for Justice!

Briefly, I can say: How is the safety in Stockholm? If you look at the safety surveys, you can see that it is heading in the right direction. More people feel safe in their residential areas, and more people can go out in the evenings in their residential areas than they could four years ago.

I believe that this is partly about the Social Democrats being involved in restructuring the police training and opening more police training positions. We thus resolved the situation that the Moderates left behind in 2014 with zero admitted to the police training in Stockholm, for example. I think we can expect that part of that development is about us actually getting more police officers here.

It is also about broad social measures. Now Gunnar Strömmer mentions part of the solution, namely preventive stay bans – a proposal that was investigated and which we voted yes to. The Social Democrats were for preventive stay bans. This is usually brought up as the big solution and the answer to why we have had ten fewer open drug scenes in Stockholm over the last four years but had four more under the Moderates' last government. The result from 2018 to 2022 was plus four; the result from 2022 to 2026 is minus ten.

Yes, preventive restraining orders may have been part of that, but we see in the evaluations that it is also important to have broad measures – to have more field workers, to work so that addicts receive care in time, to ensure that the school takes care of those who are supposed to be in school, to ensure that families have intensive family therapy and to work with point marking. Here, we are leading the way in Stockholm.

I believe it is about a broader solution than just looking at a number of areas, or perhaps one area of these ten, where, as I understand it, there have been preventive residence bans.

We want to do more. We oppose the policy that is being pursued nationally. This year alone, the government's underinvestment in state grants amounted to minus 300 million kronor for Stockholm. At the same time, they are not solving the police shortage and question whether we, in this situation, should invest in more adults in schools and more social secretaries out on the streets and squares. We are working broadly with safety investments in our districts, which de facto provide a positive development.

My question is the opposite: Will the Moderates' policy remain unchanged? Will you continue to starve municipalities and regions through reduced state grants and at the same time locally reject the investments we make, not solve the police shortage and say that we should hire security guards? Then the question arises: Where will the funding come from? Do you want to continue to starve the municipalities and pass the costs on to the local taxpayers when you lower the tax for the very richest nationally?

This is an inconsistent policy that has a single purpose, namely that those who are very well off should be even better off. That makes it difficult for the municipalities to handle this assignment.

However, we do what we can. Despite a moderate Finance Minister and despite the Sweden Democrats' voting in the chamber, we do what we can, and it is having an effect. But we are far from finished. What we desire is a shared responsibility where the state takes its responsibility for the growth of the police and the municipalities take their responsibility to increase safety locally in schools, in social services, and on streets and squares by making safety investments. That is what we are requesting.

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

Martin Westmont (SD)

Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Justice and Member Vepsä for their answers. However, it feels as though words weigh very little when we nevertheless see that Stockholm is deteriorating in terms of safety. This is, after all, a municipality where the Social Democrats are in power. This is a very important issue, and it is enormously important that we have broad cooperation in order to be able to deal with the problems we see with growing insecurity in society.

I would like to read a quote: "We have lost their eyes and ears and the opportunity to intervene at night. We also notice their cuts during the daytime, as there are fewer patrols and less presence."

This is, therefore, a quote and a description from reality, from a person who himself works with police matters here in Stockholm. He describes how the cooperation between the police and security guards has deteriorated since the red-green majority took over the governance in Stockholm.

In Stockholm, where the Social Democrats rule, enormous amounts are borrowed and taxes are raised for the municipal residents. Still, insecurity spreads. This is the reality of the Social Democrats' policy, and it is important to take this with you. If we let the Social Democrats get power over Sweden, Sweden will go the same way as our capital, that is to say, become a place where more and more residents feel insecure, not least in their own residential area.

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

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! The state is now finally taking its responsibility with a government led by the Moderaterna. In just over three years, we have secured 628 more police officers for Stockholm, to be compared with the 130 fewer police officers there was in Stockholm during eight years under the Socialdemokraterna's rule. I gladly welcome a discussion on the national responsibility for the number of police officers in Stockholm and gladly contrast our way of taking responsibility for the issue during the years we have governed, with 628 more police officers in just over three years, against 130 fewer police officers in the Stockholm region during the eight years the Socialdemokraterna governed.

It is excellent to have a discussion about state national responsibility. We take our part of that to the highest degree.

We also ensure that the police, not least in Stockholm, receive new, effective tools. I do not want to overstate the preventive stay-away orders, but I also do not intend to buy Mattias Vepsäs's downplaying of the importance of just that tool, which has indeed been delivered from the national level to be used locally.

Not least the police in Farsta and Botkyrka have been incredibly offensive with this. That is why we see that, for example, a district like Rågsved is safer than it has been in decades, thanks to the fact that with effective tools and more police on site, dangerous individuals have been able to be moved away. Consequently, the citizens, business owners, and civil society have taken back their area. It is impossible to imagine the rapid development without the preventive stay bans.

Those who travel to Fittja centrum experience the same thing. There, people testify according to the police that it has not been as safe for perhaps 20 years. They point clearly to the preventive stay bans.

We are, therefore, pleased that safety is increasing for the citizens in Stockholm. But it cannot be avoided that it is largely about the fact that there are finally more police in Stockholm in outer service, close to the citizens, who can work preventatively and crime-preventively and who have also finally been given tools that bite on the problems that have made so many Stockholmers insecure for such a very long time.

The second question regarding national accountability can well concern the municipalities' conditions to economically manage safety issues. There, one can still say that what the Social Democrats left behind was an inflation of 10 percent which truly made the municipalities poorer. Every krona became less valuable for every minute, every hour, every day, every week and every month that passed.

That we are now back at inflation levels below 2 percent is the absolute best gift that the national level can give to the municipalities. It means that the value of tax revenues is not being eroded, but on the contrary, is now increasing in real terms.

Then one can also compare Stockholm with other parts of the country. The Stockholm region is, after all, one of Sweden's wealthiest regions, seen, for example, in the taxpayers' ability to pay. But it is in Stockholm that you raise the tax, not for the rich but for the bus drivers, the care assistants, and the primary school teachers, while simultaneously borrowing a million per hour. It is so staggering that one has to double-check that figure every time – an enormous borrowing from future generations in Stockholm.

This is also done at the same time as one is obviously firing half of the security guards. It can, of course, be said that there are other ways to work with safety. It is clear that there are, and there are also very many other important interventions to be made. But when one fires security guards locally, the police must therefore compensate for that by hiring their own security guards on Södermalm because a broader range was needed to work with safety locally.

Overall, it can still be said that the national level is now finally taking responsibility for Stockholm in a completely different way than what was done previously, while the local level, unfortunately, in far too many cases undermines the possibility of working effectively against insecurity and crime.

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

Mattias Vepsä (S)

Mr. Speaker! I thank you for that answer. We shall have to see how well these words age. It depends somewhat on how Trump acts in the Middle East and how many percent of inflation the government leaves behind. I think that the global economic situation plays quite a lot into this.

When it comes to the loan amount, I just want to encourage the minister to fact-check that specific claim one more time. There are divided opinions on that.

A response to Martin Westmont is that we would have had, in a roundabout way, 2,000 more eyes to watch with if we had solved the police shortage by 1,000 police officers. Each one has two eyes, after all. I think that more police officers are crucial to solving the problems with crime. We think that it is a police task to maintain order on streets and squares, to break the recruitment to the gangs, to tackle economic crime, to crack down on the fraud taking place in, for example, the construction industry, and to work broadly to tackle crime in the working life. Security guards will not solve that.

Security guards have a very important responsibility at a certain place on a certain square. It is nothing we say no to. But if we are to uproot crime in the long term, it requires more of what we do, that is to say that we invest in the local community, that we can get a pre-emptive right to get rid of unserious shady property owners and center owners, that we work to break addiction and that we truly crack down on recruitment to the gangs. Then investments in school, social services, and police are required.

What we are demanding is a government that stops lowering taxes for the wealthiest nationally and shifting costs locally. At the same time, they want to penalize municipalities that take their responsibility by raising taxes to be able to manage the core of the welfare, that is, school, social services and better opportunities for families to prevent children from joining criminal gangs. That is what this debate is about.

(Applause)

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I have debated with Mattias Vepsä a few times during these years. It always begins with a question concerning justice policy, but it takes about half a minute and then we talk about a socialist tax policy. That is always where we end up.

It is delightful when Mattias Vepsä speaks about raising taxes. I rarely perceive it as feeling painful. I just want to emphasize that behind the recurring rhetorical point we have heard for decades—that the Moderaterna want to lower taxes for the rich—hides a reality where the Socialdemokrater locally, in other words, raise taxes for the poor, or raise taxes for average earners.

When you raise taxes locally with the light-mindedness that characterizes the Social Democrats' understanding of municipal finances, it means that it is the bus driver, the nursing assistant, and the primary school teacher who take the hit. It is then their children who are to pick up the bill for the borrowing that the Social Democrats engage in – moreover at historically high levels – in Stockholm.

The responsible way is reasonably to prioritize. Furthermore, we can read reports from the social services in Skärholmen, in close connection to the dramatic shooting some time ago, where it appears that social secretaries are resigning because they feel they are not receiving the political support they need.

At the national level, with the Moderaterna in the Government Offices, we have ensured that the situation has turned. Eight years of Social Democratic rule meant 130 fewer police officers in Stockholm. That is the fact. I am very happy to speak about the importance of more police in Stockholm. But let us then remember that the starting point was 130 fewer police officers after eight years with the Socialdemokraterna in Rosenbad. After just over three years with a Moderate-led government, there are 628 more police officers in Stockholm, and even more are coming already this summer. The plan and the curve are unambiguous; even more police are on their way to the people of Stockholm.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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