Opposition proposes new serious crime unit

However, Thomas Bodström, the chairman of the committee for justice of Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdag, stopped short of calling it a tip organisation for a Swedish Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The proposed police unit would consist of several thousand people.

“We will have a very powerful organization,” said Bodström, a former justice minister and the Social Democrats’ justice spokesman.

The Social Democrats call for merging the National Criminal Police (Rikskriminalpolisen), the Swedish Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen) and Swedish Economic Crime Authority (Ekobrottsmyndigheten).

The new national tip organisation would be called the National Police Organisation Against Economic and Organised Crime (Polisens riksorganisation mot ekonomisk och organiserad brottslighet, Reko).

Bodström asserted that Sweden currently has enough police officers and that they basically have the tools they need, including the possibility of bugging.

However, according to Bodström, what is missing is a powerful organisation against serious crime. He claimed that there is redundant work and turf wars within the police.

“Everyone knows this, but it is nothing anyone speaks highly of,” said Bodström.

He added he not call the proposed organisation a tip agency for a Swedish FBI.

“That line of thinking is in the wrong direction,” said Bodström. “In the US, there is a completely different brutality and worse rule of law.”

The Social Democrats are the only party to back the proposal. However, Bodström said that the first reactions from the Left and Green Parties’ political law spokespeople have been positive regarding the merger of the authorities.

The proposal forms an integral part of the party’s new legal policies borrowed from comic strip character The Phantom’s motto “tough against the tough.”