It has not yet been decided whether the officers will return to their special tactical units. But having reevaluated the situation, the Västra Götaland police force does not consider it as serous as it did when the men were assigned to desk duty at the beginning of February.

“When we reassigned them we didn’t have all the cards on the table,” said Erik Nord, commander of field duty police officers in Gothenburg, to the TT news agency.

The presence of a male stripper at the party held in a rented cabin near Gothenburg, as well as pictures of the naked police officers, prompted an investigation and the reassignment of all officers involved.

The nine officers, none of whom were women, had just finished supplemental training to serve in special tactical units and included a number of seasoned veterans. All were aged between 30 and 40 years old.

Upon seeing what they deemed as questionable behaviour, the instructors who had trained them during the six-month course put a stop to the celebrations.

During the party, officers began carrying out a sex game which was meant to dramatize some sort of homosexual relationship.

The game featured a male stripper, as well as pictures of the lower half of the officers’ bodies as they held police-issued sub-machine guns in their hands.

“We now have a full overview of the sequence of events. It was a joke aimed at the instructors. During the party, a scenario was played out for them that was intended to be shocking and knock them off balance,” said Erik Nord.

The photos of the men’s naked lower bodies had been taken earlier as part of a training exercise.

“Maybe they didn’t display the most fabulous sense of judgment, but having got a better picture of things it at least doesn’t seem quite as foolish as earlier,” said Nord.

He added that the officers involved deeply regretted what had happened.

Nord did not wish to say whether the men would be permitted to return to their special tactical units.

“But we trust them to the extent that they can perform full regular active police duty.”