When the pandemic broke out last year, many feared that the judiciary would be negatively affected as a result of greater sick leave.
But the figures indicate that there was an opposite development, shows a new report from the Crime Prevention Council.
- In the first months of 2020, production was about the same as before, but then it goes up, says Stina Holmberg, research and investigation council at Brå.
For the police, it is about 10,000 more investigated crimes, an increase of 6 percent.
The same increase can be seen at the Public Prosecutor's Office, where 6 percent more crimes were prosecuted last year.
The number of decisions in court also increased, but the increase was not seen until the autumn of 2020.
Continuing education has been canceled
A strong contributing factor for the police is that the authority has had significantly less to do in certain areas due to the pandemic, says Stina Holmberg.
- These include commands at football matches, demonstrations and then we have passport applications, which have decreased very much.
The police can then use that time to instead, for example, work more with first-hand interventions when they discover crime.
What all three authorities also have in common is that in principle all continuing education has been discontinued in order to reduce the risk of the spread of infection.
What are the risks of setting up continuing education in this way?
- I do not think that a year's delays will have any major negative effects, but it is important not to downplay the continuing education for a longer period, because then the quality of the work decreases.