Police and crime in rural and small Swedish municipalities

The allocation of police officers in a country is generally a matter of great public concern. Between 2006 and 2010 police manpower in Sweden increased by about 15 percent, just as the coalition government had promised. However, in various documents the government has been clear about the need of police presence all over the country and a network organization consisting of rural and small municipalities have had as one of their main goal to ensure that there are permanent police personnel in all municipalities. In this article the allocation of police resources as well as police-recorded domestic burglary in rural and other municipalities are being analysed. The overall conclusion is that rural areas have not gained any increase in police numbers since 2006. Crime in general is lower in these communities but in relative terms increases over time have been as large or even larger in rural and small municipalities compared to other municipalities. In 2015 Sweden will see a new form of national police organization. To what extent this political reform will ensure police presence in rural and small communities is still a key question.