Swedish premier pushes for large expansion of police force

LONDON

Sweden's prime minister announced Thursday that she wants to expand the number of police employees in the country to improve public security.

Magdalena Andersson was joined by Finance Minister Mikael Damberg and Justice Minister Morgan Johansson at a press conference, where it was announced that the ruling Social Democrats party wants the police force to grow to 50,000 employees by 2032. Out of those, 34,000 will be uniformed police officers, who will be visible in the streets.

“Sweden is a fantastic country, but we have big problems,” said Andersson.

Andersson cited gang crime and shootings as a reason for her decision but also said the police's powers should be expanded and that the punishment for serious weapons crimes should be doubled.

Damberg said the violence is becoming "rawer."

“It must be fought, and then more police officers are needed. This is an ambitious goal that we estimate will cost tens of billions of krona,” said Damberg.

Johansson added that this investment is the biggest in modern times when it comes to the police.

“These are not numbers we pull out of our sleeves but come from a dialogue with the police authority,” he said.

According to Johansson, there are a record number of people who now want to become police officers in Sweden.

“There is fierce competition for (police) education places. With every six months that goes by, we will have more people going into service,” he added.

Sweden is known to have the highest gun murder rates in Europe.

The Swedish government published a report last year in which it said that four in every million inhabitants die in shootings each year in Sweden compared to Europe's average of 1.6 deaths per million inhabitants.