Fact Check: Is Sweden's Police Solving More Crimes?

Sweden's police force, the country's largest agency with over 40,000 employees, has experienced substantial growth in recent years. Over the past decade, its budget has increased by 70% after adjusting for inflation. Parliament has also progressively equipped the police with more tools, including expanded surveillance powers and the ability to use anonymous witnesses, measures that critics argue may compromise legal certainty.

Amidst this expansion, a central question remains: is the police solving more crimes? The answer is complicated by the definition of a "cleared crime." If police submit a completed investigation to prosecutors, is the crime considered solved? What if the accused is later acquitted, or if the suspect is not criminally responsible or has died?

The personal clearance rate, the most commonly used metric by researchers and authorities, measures the proportion of handled reports that lead to charges, penalty orders, or dropped prosecution where guilt is legally assessed. This rate fell from 18% to 13% between 2011 and 2016 and has remained largely stagnant since. In 2025, it stood at 13.0%, marginally lower than the 13.2% recorded in 2016. Furthermore, the absolute number of cleared crimes has not increased; in fact, it slightly decreased from 197,000 in 2016 to 190,000 in 2025, even as the total number of handled reports declined by 2% during the same period.