People with a foreign background have a harder time passing the police test

Today, 6.5 percent of the police force has a foreign background, but the goal is to increase the number.

- For the police, it is important that we represent the society in which we operate, it is a matter of credibility, says Max Lutteman at the police's HR department.

Despite this, few with a foreign background train as police officers.

SVT has reviewed admission statistics which show that people with a foreign background have a much harder time getting into the education than people with a Swedish background.

Missing analysis

In order to be accepted, in addition to meeting the grading requirements, the applicant must pass a number of different tests.

In recent years, about 20 percent of those who came to the tests have had a foreign background.

Already after the first test, which tests logical thinking and personality traits, half of those with a foreign background are sorted out, but only a quarter of those with a Swedish background.

When all tests have been completed, every fifth person with a Swedish background has been admitted to the program, but only every tenth with a foreign background.

- If you do not have Swedish as a mother tongue, it can be an explanation for the fact that you can do it a little worse.

But whether the language really is the explanation is not known, because no analysis of the dropout has been made by the police.

An asset in some areas

Researcher Anders Sjöberg, who has had several assignments for the police, believes that if they want to bring in more diversity, a solution could, for example, be to introduce language skills in addition to Swedish and English as an additional assessment criterion in the tests.

- You may want more diversity, and that is politically correct to say. But then you have to bring it into the model, says Anders Sjöberg, associate professor of work psychology.

One of the approximately 1,200 police officers in Sweden with a foreign background is Rissa Seidou. She was born in Togo in Africa, grew up in France, and came to Sweden as a 20-year-old. According to her, more police officers who are not all Swedish are needed, especially in areas where many people with other backgrounds live:

- If we talk about the deadly violence that is happening right now in our area, it has been an asset, that the parents confide in me and tell "my son has weapons at home" or "he has started hanging out with the wrong friends".

Broaden the image of relevant experience

According to Rissa Seidou, lowering the requirements for those who want to become police officers would be the wrong way to go.

On the other hand, she believes that one could broaden the picture of what may be relevant experience, and value it also in admission to the police program.