PIJPSM
21,2
280
Swedish police selection and
training: issues from a
comparative perspective
Vivian B. Lord
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte,
North Carolina, USA
Through the centuries, countries’ criminal laws have been enforced by
specialized policing units. Until the nineteenth century, police systems in
different countries were more diverse than similar; however, contemporary
agencies have some organizational and operational features in common. These
commonalities can be explained to some degree by imitative response to similar
problems (Gurr
et al., 1977). Countries observe the handling of problems by
their neighbors on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and attempt to adapt
successful solutions to their problems. One issue facing all police organizations
is the selection and development of officers. Certainly the United States of
America (USA) is not exempted from this issue.
Law enforcement in the USA continues to struggle with high rates of officer
turnover and incidents of officer corruption, excessive use of force, and
inappropriate use of authority (Scrivner, 1994). In the USA, Barker (1986) in one
study found that 40 percent of the officers had used excessive force. Another
study established that a police department of moderate size had terminated 40
out of 1,500 officers over the past five years for criminal activity, excessive force,
or incompetency (Lord, 1996). Law enforcement departments in the USA
expend a great deal of resources attempting to screen out applicants who are
potentially a menace with only partial success. Selecting effective officers is
even less successful. Training is viewed as primarily the formal instruction of
basic information and skills in the academies with informal follow-up in field
training. Little attention is spent socializing the new officer in the expectations,
values, norms and behaviors of the law enforcement organization. Instead the
officer blindly searches for acceptable behavior from veteran officers. It is often
only by fortuitous circumstances that the officer links with an officer who
follows behaviors and values that are similar to those acceptable by the
organization. Could training that focused more on the overall expectations,
values, and norms of the organization be a cost effective means to develop
stable, effective officers? Have such training practices worked in other
countries?
Policing: An International Journal of
Police Strategies & Management ,
Vol. 21 No. 2, 1998, pp. 280-292,
© MCB University Press, 1363-951X
The author would like to extend appreciation to Dr. Paul Friday for his assistance in the
coordination of the trip to Sweden and the later review of my manuscript. This paper was
presented at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Chicago.