Stefan Holgersson is a researcher at the Police Academy in Oslo and has worked as a police officer in Sweden since the 90s.

According to him, there is a stated strategy within the police and prosecutor's office to close investigations against employees within their own authority.

- It is not something that is written down on paper, of course, but it will be an effect of keeping the balances down and reducing the workload.

Measures are taken to be able to show afterwards that there were reasons to close, not to pursue the matter further.

Then it will of course be difficult to get people killed.

"Hard times that apply"

The fact that the number of reports against police officers who use force in the service is increasing is not in itself proof that things are going wrong, says Stefan Holgersson.

However, he believes that there are major problems with the police's conflict management.

According to him, many violent interventions could have been stopped if the police had the right training in dealing with aggressive people.

- A message is sent that it is "hard times" that apply.

There can certainly be reasons to set boundaries when intervening, but the problem is when there are staff who are young and insecure and also do not reflect in the way that should be done.

Then it becomes a problem.

Those who point out the problems risk being subjected to reprisals, and raising critical issues is described by Holgersson as "taboo".

- What I have seen is that there are police officers who do very well, but there are also those who often make bad interventions and who have attitude problems and who can continue with it without it leading to any measures.

It is rather those who react to it who get into trouble.

Want an individual authority for police cases

He believes that the police's special investigations, which are responsible for a large part of the investigation work on crime-suspected police officers, should become a separate authority.

- It is not at all successful that the person who is the head of special investigations has salary talks with the national police chief and that continuous meetings are held with the highest chief about crimes that have been committed and that may affect the police brand.

That brand is very important to preserve.