[ad_1]
The Växjö District Court recently sentenced a police officer to a suspended sentence for stealing a packet of coffee from a police station in Kronoberg County. It is not believed to be the first time, but the value of the robbery the verdict is about was only thirty-eight crowns. However, that’s enough for her to lose her job.
This is a leader who expresses the political line of Smålandsposten: for Christian values, conservative ideology in conjunction with the liberal tradition of ideas and for the preservation of business freedom and property rights. The newspaper’s political etiquette is moderate.
In practice, thefts to the organization may be minor, but given the context, a court or the Police Personnel Responsibility Committee judges them as something more serious. It is not a private sin in your spare time, but a crime against the employer and a sign that the person is neglecting their professional role.
At a purely legal level, the Labor Court has previously ruled that even petty theft from employers can be reason enough to terminate a job. Lotta Gustavson, General Counsel and Vice Chair of the Staff Responsibility Committee, explained to Polistidningen (8/2) that it “takes away the trust between employers and employees.”
Convicted police officers lose their jobs if the crimes are serious enough or if they are seen to damage the public’s trust in police authority. In the case of stolen coffee, however, it is rather a question of trust within the police force that has been damaged.
It may be feared that petty thefts will escalate into more serious attacks or complicate working relationships with other police officers. In another high-profile case that Polistidningen likened to coffee theft, a police officer was convicted in the fall of gun crimes and possession of doping substances. However, that was not enough to get fired.
His wife was convicted of running a brothel and even if the policeman himself was not convicted of pimping, there is reason to question that he continues as a police officer. Continuous security screening can cause you to lose your security classification and eventually your job at a later stage.
Some professions require particularly heavy responsibility, usually towards the employer, such as in handling cash or confidential information, but when it comes to police officers, a relationship with the public also comes into play. Sweden is largely spared the kind of abuse and misconduct that has been observed in other countries. But that does not mean that police officers deserve carte blanche.
If the representatives of the judiciary themselves commit crimes, it can damage public confidence and have devastating consequences. A key to this is the mishandling of criminals’ attorneys within their own ranks.
Being a police officer is a professional role that requires great professionalism and a sense of duty. In an age characterized by mobility in the labor market, it can easily be forgotten. But uniformed occupations are little more than a collection of tasks. You represent an organization and a role bigger than you. For police officers, it is as important as the legal basis of the company.
