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Sweden needs more police officers, union says

A lack of adequate staff numbers and changes within the police organization are preventing more crimes from being solved, according to the Swedish Police Union (Polisförbundet) survey of its members.

Published: 5 May 2017 09:15 CEST

Sweden needs more police officers, union says

File photo of Swedish police officers. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

According to 39 percent of police surveyed, a lack of investigation staff means the country's crime clearance rate is going in the wrong direction. 23 percent blamed changes in the police organization for that meanwhile, and 13 percent blamed a lack of staff to carry out arrests.

“They lack officers to investigate all crimes. Talented police officers are quitting these days because they get better conditions within other fields,” Polisförbundet spokesperson Lena Nitz said in a statement.

The number of cases handed over by police to prosecutors in Sweden has decreased from 200,000 per year to 150,000 in 2016 according to the union, though a change in the trend appears to have started this year.

The survey also showed the at almost a third of police officers consider half of their administrative work to be unnecessary, and that it could be avoided by streamlining.

READ ALSO: Swedish police 'in crisis', union says

The union says that too many people leave their job prematurely due to a difficult working environment and low salaries. Last year 460 officers quit in order to pursue something else, and by March this year the figure was at 130.

In 2016, 200 police officers under the age of 40 left their positions, while police training positions were not fully filled at the same time.

Swedish rail derailments could be linked to 'Russian-backed sabotage'

The report comes just days after prosecutors arrested two German-Russian men on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany to undermine military support for Ukraine. There have been similar alleged incidents in several other European countries.

FT also claims that security services in Sweden suspect that a series of recent railway derailments may be acts of state-backed sabotage.

It doesn’t mention any specific incidents, but late last year, a fully-loaded freight train derailed on the Malmbanan near Vassijaure in northern Sweden, damaging around 15 kilometres of the line.

Repairs began quickly, but state-owned Swedish mining company LKAB, which uses the line to transport iron ore was greatly affected, with losses of around 100 million kronor per day while the line was closed and a 3.8 million drop in operating profits for the last quarter of 2024.

It reopened on February 20th, but just five days later it derailed again in Vassijaure, this time along a shorter stretch.

Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at the Swedish Security Services (Säpo), reiterated to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) what’s previously been said, that Säpo is collaborating with police on the Malmbanan investigation.

“Säpo has an ongoing, routine collaboration with the police force on a number of cases, primarily when it cannot be ruled out that a foreign power is involved. One of those collaborations is on the investigation around Malmbanan,” he said.

Hultgren-Friberg declined to comment on the FT’s reports that Russia is planning attacks on European infrastructure.

“What I can confirm is that Russia is the largest single threat to Sweden,” he told SvD. “We’ve said that for a while. What we can see is more aggressive, risky behaviour from Russia in their illegal actions and spying in Sweden.”

Swedish police and Säpo have previously confirmed that they are investigating the Malmbanan incidents as possible sabotage, which doesn’t automatically mean that they actively suspect sabotage, but is also a routine procedure to facilitate the probe.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish news agency TT that the reports in FT did not come as a surprise to him.

“Russia is prepared to go further and carry out operations and sabotage on other countries’ territory,” he said.

But when asked whether such acts of sabotage had taken place in Sweden, he said that wasn’t the case.

“We haven’t seen any such signs for now, but we are on our toes. Other countries have seen things where they know or believe that there are such connections,” Kristersson said.

In late April, LKAB said it was so badly affected by the derailments that it may need to close temporarily as it’s not able to get stock to customers quickly enough, so its warehouses are nearing capacity.

“It’s a real worry,” LKAB’s CEO Jan Moström told TT. “If we can’t lower our stock then we’re going to have to start dialling down production capacity.”

Moström believes that this could affect up to 600 people – half being LKAB employees and the other half being independent contractors.

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