Police Region East means Jönköping County, Sörmland and Östergötland and when more than 2,000 police in the area participated in a survey, almost half answered that they experienced threats, violence or harassment during the past year.

Attitudes have become rawer

Among other things, it has been about threats against themselves or their families, getting stones and bottles thrown at them and being shot at by pyrotechnics.

- Attitudes towards police officers have become cruder, threats and violence more studied and directed at the police as a person.

Many police officers also no longer feel that they have society behind them to the same extent.

This must change - there must be zero tolerance for threats and violence against police officers, says Kerstin Sjöberg, chairman of the Police Association in the East region, in a press release.

The survey shows that eight out of ten of the region's police believe that the most important measures to increase security are more police, but also stricter legislation regarding threats and violence against the professional group.

The police union's demands

Almost half of the region's police officers in the survey also feel that they do not fully receive the training required to handle the tasks in the safest possible way.

The Swedish Police Confederation is now demanding that the penalties for violence and threats against an official of the normal degree be sharpened, that the personal data of police officers be better protected and that more police officers be employed.