146: The Life & Lessons Of An Elite Swedish 'Piketen' Police Officer

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The fella who features here has been working with different divisions of Swedish law enforcement for over 20 years and this includes over 10 years with Piketen - Sweden’s equivalent of SWAT.

Piketen says their work is ‘particularly dangerous and complex situations’ and  this includes hostage situations, high risk search warrants, etc. Only 8% of people manage to complete the various psychological and physical tests that are required to make it into Piketen and it was on one of his first jobs with this division that the guest on this episode was involved in an incident that will remain with him for the rest of his life.

This is a deeply personal podcast going from his beginning to now, the full journey of a fella from northern Sweden who wanted to be policeman ever since he he could understand what it meant.

Now, I would love to give a bit of a broader context on the current issues around law enforcement that are being discussed in Sweden, but I am afraid I would not do it justice at all, so let’s leave it at if you are Swedish, I am sure you’re already informed, and if you aren't, than many of the issues are likely mirrored in your own country.

Lower trust in police, more scepticism, lower wages, less applicants, lower standards, more mistakes, harsher critics, negative media attention, and more and more and more context which paints policing overall in a negative light… which in my opinion is a losing strategy because even though everyone of us might have our own example of bad police, imagine if they weren't around, or on average, just as unskilled and as undisciplined as the rest of us.

That's a grim picture. Everything is as nice as it is, because there are people who enforce the law.

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