A government inquiry, which is being submitted to Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M), suggests this.
The readiness police previously existed in Sweden but was abolished in 2012. However, the new security policy situation poses new demands, and the defense committee has proposed that the readiness police be reintroduced.
Reserve police officers, according to the inquiry, should be former police officers and police students at the end of their education. They should be registered for civil duty and be able to be called in for service, for example, in the event of heightened alert and war.
Reserve police officers should be able to do everything that regular police officers can do, but the tasks should be "suitable".
The inquiry also proposes that the Defense Forces should be able to provide support to the police in more situations than today, both in peacetime and wartime. A new law should be introduced to regulate this. The Defense Forces should be able to be used, for example, to intervene in terrorist crimes and other serious crimes if there is a risk to human life or health.
The conditions for requesting support are that the support must be necessary, that the police's own resources should be inadequate, that the support should be suitable, and it must also be proportionate, says the investigator Rikard Jermsten.
The government must also, as a general rule, have given its consent for the police to request it.
Another proposal is that police officers should no longer be classified as "combatants" in war. Today, police officers have a kind of dual status, where they are expected to continue performing their civilian duties and participate in military defense during war.
A new ordinance on reserve police officers is proposed to come into force in October 2026, and the law on the Defense Forces' support to the police in January 2027.
