Police Accessibility in Sweden: An Analysis of the Spatial Arrangement of Police Services

Abstract

The Swedish police organization has recently undergone a significant restructuring, combining previously independent regional bodies into a single national authority. It is currently unclear how this process has affected the accessibility of police services. Using central place theory and notions of public reassurance as theoretical references, this study examines the distribution of police stations and how their spatial arrangement affects the population's access, by car, to various types of police services. Open-access data and geographic information systems underlie the methodology. Results show that, despite regional differences in population density, a large majority of the population has less than a 20-min drive to the nearest police station. However, residents of remote areas may have to travel more than 2 h to access uncommon services. The article discusses policy implications in the Swedish context, which are broadly relevant for understanding the supply of police services in other sparsely populated countries.