Changed evidentiary requirements?

Between 2006 and 2010, the police force expanded by 2,500 new employees. One of the hopes behind this investment by the Government was that the police’s investigative work would improve and the person-based clearance rate of reported offences would increase. This effect was not, however, realised, and instead the person-based clearance rate has declined during recent years. Brå has previously sought explanations as to why an increase in the number of police did not lead to an increased person-based clearance rate (Brå 2014:17) and found several possible reasons which were not, however, investigated within the scope of that project.

The Government has since given Brå a new instruction to investigate three of these possible reasons for the downward trend of the person-based clearance rate: the use of limitations of investigation (result presented in Brå 2015:7), changes in the character of the offences (result presented in Brå 2016:8), and changed evidentiary requirements (which is addressed in this report).