Swedish Police Authority

Swedish Police Authority Polismyndigheten
International logotype for the Swedish Police
Common name	Polisen (The police)
Agency overview
Formed	1 January 2015
Preceding agencies	Swedish National Police Board 21 local police authorities
Employees	32,000 (2020)[1]
Annual budget	SEK 21 billion (2015)[2]
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency	Sweden
Operations jurisdiction	Sweden
Governing body	Riksdag
Constituting instruments	Police Act (1984:387) Ordinance (2022:1718) containing instructions for the Police Authority The Police Ordinance (2014:1104)
General nature	Local civilian police
Operational structure
Headquarters	Kungsholmen, Stockholm
Minister responsible	Gunnar Strömmer, Minister for Justice
Agency executive	Petra Lundh, National Police Commissioner
Departments	8 National Forensics Centre National Operations Department Communications Department Development Department Finance Department Human Resources Department IT Department Legal Department
Police regions	7 North Region Central Region Bergslagen Region East Region West Region South Region Stockholm Region
Website
polisen.se/en/

The Swedish Police Authority (Swedish: Polismyndigheten) is the national police force (Polisen) of the Kingdom of Sweden. The first modern police force in Sweden was established in the mid-19th century, and the police remained in effect under local government control up until 1965, when it was nationalized and became increasingly centralized,^[3] to finally organize under one authority January 1, 2015. Concurrent with this change, the Swedish Security Service formed its own agency.^[4] The new authority was created to address shortcomings in the division of duties and responsibilities, and to make it easier for the Government to demand greater accountability.^[5] The agency is organized into seven police regions and eight national departments.^[6] It is one of the largest government agencies in Sweden, with more than 28,500 employees, of which police officers accounted for approximately 75 percent of the personnel in 2014.^[7][4] It takes two and a half years to become a police officer in Sweden, including six months of paid workplace practice.^[8] Approximately a third of all police students are women, and in 2011 women accounted for 40 percent of all employees.^[9][10]