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Of: TT
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Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / TT
More police, but less in the external service. Stock Photography.
The number of police officers working in the foreign service has decreased in five years.
“Alarming”, believe the moderates. But the Police Authority calls the statistics “a bit misleading.”
According to previously classified statistics from the Police Authority, which has read the Police Magazine, the number of police officers in the external service has decreased from 2015 to 2019.
During the period, the population increased significantly, crime worsened, and the total number of police officers increased.
In December 2019, 9,049 police officers were employed in the external service, compared to 9,226 police officers in 2015, according to information from the newspaper.
The figures also include parental leave, leave and sick leave.
Unclear definition
– The figure is a bit misleading. But we are well aware that we need to have more in external service, says Mattias Dejke, national growth coordinator at the Police Authority.
– There is no established definition when we talk about external service. If we look at the annual workforce in external service, as we are trying to do, and we look at August of this year, we see the highest figure since 2015. Our municipal police, for example, has almost tripled.
Exhausting work
The moderates’ legal policy spokesman, Johan Forssell, believes the figures are “alarming” and a sign that the police and the government have failed.
According to him, there is a structural tradition within the Police Authority, dating back a long time, where police officers work shorter periods in local areas and then land on a clerical job.
– It is not so strange because the work is exhausting and it is not that well paid. There, the Police Authority must consider how to use the resources. It must be attractive to work and stay in a local police zone.
Cautious minister
Interior Minister Mikael Damberg (S) welcomes the Police magazine review, but is cautious about making major changes to the statistics.
– The police authority must account for the figures and how they should be interpreted. It is quite difficult to calculate this and it is easy to put the categories of personnel in different columns, he tells TT.
Mikael Damberg refers to this year’s regulatory letter, in which the government writes, among other things, that the authority will continue to “report on the measures taken to ensure a clear and lasting police presence throughout the country.” The authority is also asked to report on the extent to which there are zone police at the local police zone level.
Must be attractive
– Now we have opened two police trainings and we will have growth in the coming years, says Mikael Damberg.
Mattias Dejke points out that the objective of the Police Authority is to have another 5,000 police officers in service in four years and that he must “feel attractive to work in outside activities.”
– We are aware that it is a challenge to grow as much as we want, to accept as many students in a short time, but it still shows that we are going in the right direction, he says.
Corrected version: In a previous version there was incorrect information about who did the revision.
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