"Although the interest in the police is great, fewer than desired have been adopted for police training in the spring of 2020," comments Mattias Dejke, national growth coordinator for the Police Authority, in a press release.

Beginning next year, the admissions process will change so that it is possible to apply for police training at any time during the year. The time between the application and the admission notice must also be reduced significantly, from about 30 weeks to one month.

- It is on our behalf, we have said that it does not work well enough. We have a record number of applicants, but it is still the case that we make tough demands on police officers. Then the whole process of trying and adopting police officers must be better. From January 1, there will be a new system and the police will tell me that it will have an effect, ”said Interior Minister Mikael Damberg (S).

Will increase by 10,000

In addition, a function-oriented police training has been developed as a further way into the police profession. The training is intended for people who have experience such as IT forensics, analysts and investigators. The education currently has 48 seats, but the ambition is to double the number of participants by 2021.

Moderate jurisprudence spokesman Johan Forssell is concerned about the bad numbers.

- They are seriously asking the question of the realistic in reaching the target of 10,000 more police employees. If the distribution is to be two-thirds of the police, it will be very difficult.

Forsell thinks the government should take a proper think about introducing a paid police training to get more qualified people to apply. The model of the moderates means that after five years in the police profession, their student loans are written off.

"Challenging goals"

Mikael Damberg does not want to give up the target of 10,000 more police employees by 2024 and says the government is prepared to take further action.

- The Chief of Police says to me that he thinks that the goal can be achieved. I understand that this is a challenging goal, but we have shown with the resource enhancements we give the police that they can grow. But there is a lot of work that remains.