Unclear governance and poor performance after the police reform
Ten years after a sweeping reorganisation of the Swedish police service, crime-solving rates and cost effectiveness are lower than in 2015 – although some improvement has been noted in the past year. These shortcomings are partly due to ambiguous governance with insufficient focus on results, according to the Swedish National Audit Office’s audit.
In 2015, the 21 county police authorities, the National Laboratory of Forensic Science and the National Police Board were merged into a single authority. The reform was supposed to lead to higher quality, greater cost-effectiveness, increased flexibility and a substantial improvement in police performance.
The Swedish National Audit Office’s audit shows that efforts have not been sufficiently efficient and that intentions have not been fulfilled.
This conclusion is partly based on the fact that the Swedish Police Authority has, on the whole, not improved either its investigation results or cost-effectiveness since the reform. Total person-based clearance has declined since the reform, while the cost per reported and person-based cleared crime has increased sharply in the same period. Neither have reinforcements at the local level been made to the intended extent.
“Appropriations to the Swedish Police Authority have almost doubled since 2015 and the number of staff is significantly higher. With more employees available per reported crime, investigation results should reasonably improve, but the figures show the opposite. That was not what the Riksdag expected,” says Auditor General Christina Gellerbrant Hagberg.
The shortcomings are the result of the complexity of crime requiring new approaches and skills, as well as ineffective internal governance. It has been too uncoordinated, weak, ambiguous and with insufficient focus on what effects should be achieved. These problems have impeded securing resources for the local level and improving performance.
“The Authority is unable to capture employees’ views and operational needs. Besides, there has been no operational follow-up to enable adjusting governance,” says Helena Fröberg, project leader for the audit.
The Swedish National Audit Office notes that although the Swedish Police Authority has worked with the Government’s priorities, this has not always had the desired outcome. The Government’s request for quantitative follow-up has led to a focus on numbers rather than quality and effect. This poses a risk of activities being steered away from long-term improvements.
The Swedish National Audit Office welcomes the efforts currently under way within the Swedish Police Authority to transform internal governance. In particular, the new governance model’s focus on a holistic perspective, strategic planning and learning should provide better means for streamlining operations and, to a greater extent, fulfilling the intentions of the reform.
Recommendations in brief
The Swedish National Audit Office recommends the Government to be attentive to the effects of how the Swedish Police Authority acts on the Government’s priorities and direction. In its direction, the Government should also avoid using too many quantity targets and focus instead on impact.
Recommendations to the Swedish Police Authority include:
- continuing to develop internal follow-up and how this is used in order to streamline activities, to provide an understanding of operational performance and effects of various priorities, and systematically capture and disseminate experiences
- continuing to work on securing support for governance, objectives and tasks among employees to ensure proper implementation, in order to create an understanding of priorities, while allowing room for views and an opportunity to influence how set outcome objectives are to be achieved
- empowering investigators in their role
- taking a holistic approach to planning personnel requirements to ensure that overall operational needs are met.