The police newspaper has investigated all security cases that have come to the police’s personnel responsibility board, Pan, since 2015. A total of 30 people have had to leave the authority or police training because they were judged to pose a security risk, the investigation shows.
According to the newspaper, a trend break occurred in 2021. In the previous years, there were at most a couple of security cases per year.
But so far this year, a record number, a total of 13 people, have had to leave the education or the authority. This is a threefold increase compared to the previous year, the newspaper reports.
“A general trend”
The police’s head of security, Ari Stenman, believes that it is a general trend in society. There will be more security cases as awareness increases, according to him.
– We have also done an e-training on security which has raised the level of knowledge at the authority. More people contact us in the security department to tell us about situations that they don’t know if they are safe from a security point of view. That means we get more information, says Ari Stenman to the Police newspaper.
He adds that many of those who become the subject of the security department’s interest choose to leave of their own accord.
– It may be that we call an employee to a security interview and then the person sends in an application for leave to try a position elsewhere. Or we keep the call, but when we have to follow up with a second call, the person has chosen to move on, he further tells the newspaper.
Union critical
The trade unions are critical of the increase in the number of security cases, and believe that the process is legal. Among other things, because the decisions cannot be appealed.
In addition, the security department of the police often keeps secret the reasons behind the decisions, with the justification that they do not want to reveal the source or the method of information gathering, according to the newspaper.
The police newspaper has been talking to police student “Adam” who had to leave the training with immediate effect after losing his security clearance. Without being told the reason for the decision.
– I was totally blown away. They could not give any explanation. They didn’t know themselves. They said I had to collect my things immediately: the uniform, the belt, the equipment. Everything was going back to storage. Shortly afterwards, he left the building and has not been back at the school since then, says “Adam”, whose real name is something else, to the Police newspaper.
However, the employees have the opportunity to reconsider the decision via the trade union, which can turn to the Labor Court and sue the employer. But that possibility does not apply to police students.