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The Swedish Security Service ( sv, Säkerhetspolisen , abbreviated SÄPO ; until 1989 ''Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning'', abbreviated RPS/Säk) is a
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administrati ...
organised under the Ministry of Justice. It operates as a security agency responsible for counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, as well as the protection of dignitaries and the constitution. The Swedish Security Service is also tasked with investigating crimes against
national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...
and terrorist crimes. Its main mission, however, is to prevent crimes, not to investigate them. Crime prevention is to a large extent based on information acquired via contacts with the regular police force, other authorities and organisations, foreign intelligence and security services, and with the use of various intelligence gathering activities, including
interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...
s, telephone tapping, covert listening devices, and hidden surveillance cameras. The Service was, in its present form, founded in 1989, as part of the
National Police Board The Swedish National Police Board ( sv, Rikspolisstyrelsen, RPS) was the central administrative authority for the police in Sweden from 1 January 1965 to 1 January 2015, when the Swedish Police Authority was established. The Swedish police used t ...
and became an autonomous police agency on 1 January 2015. National headquarters are located at Bolstomtavägen in south-east Solna since 2014, drawing together personnel from five different locations into a single HQ facility.


History

The origins of the Swedish Security Service is often linked to the establishment of a special police bureau (''Polisbyrån'') during the First World War in 1914, which reported directly to the
General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
, predecessor of the Office for the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The bureau's main mission was protecting national security (e.g. counter-espionage), and its first chief was Captain
Erik af Edholm Lieutenant General Erik Gustaf af Edholm (6November 1878 – 16February 1954) was a Swedish Army officer. His senior commands include commanding officer of the Södermanland Regiment, the Eastern Brigade and the III Army Division. Caree ...
. Operations shut down after the end of the war in 1918, although some intelligence activities carried on at the Stockholm police, managed by a small group of approximately ten police officers led by Chief Superintendent
Eric Hallgren Eric Salomon Hallgren (20 October 1880 – 17 October 1956) was a Swedish police and civil servant. He was the first chief of the General Security Service (''Allmänna säkerhetstjänsten''), the predecessor of the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), ...
, who later was to become the first chief of the General Security Service (''Allmänna säkerhetstjänsten''). Operations were mainly focused on monitoring
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
s from the start of the war until the early 1930s, when the service also began to focus on
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
. In 1932, operations were transferred to the newly formed State Police (statspolisen). The group of officers working at the State Police did not have the means to monitor phone calls or to intercept and open mail. This, and the general lack of staff and financial resources worried the chief of Sweden's military intelligence, Lieutenant-Colonel
Carlos Adlercreutz Colonel Axel Fredrik Carlos Adlercreutz (26 January 1890 – 7 October 1963) was a Swedish Army officer. Adlercreutz is credited with the formation of the General Security Service (''Allmänna säkerhetstjänsten'') in 1938 (predecessor of the ...
, who felt the country needed a more powerful security agency if Europe once again ended up in war. Thus, in 1938 the General Security Service was formed, following an initiative by Adlercreutz and
Ernst Leche Ernst Henrik Leche (23 July 1897 – 3 April 1978) was a Swedish jurist and a district judge. He is credited with the establishment of the General Security Service (''Allmänna säkerhetstjänsten''), the predecessor of the Swedish Security Service ...
at the Ministry of Justice, among others. The entire organisation and its activities were top-secret. During the Second World War the agency monitored about 25,000 phone calls and intercepted over 200,000 letters every week. In 1946, following a
post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...
parliamentary evaluation, operations were significantly reduced and once again organised under the State Police, mainly tasked with counter-espionage. In 1965, the Swedish police was nationalized, and all work was organised under the
National Police Board The Swedish National Police Board ( sv, Rikspolisstyrelsen, RPS) was the central administrative authority for the police in Sweden from 1 January 1965 to 1 January 2015, when the Swedish Police Authority was established. The Swedish police used t ...
in the Department of Security (''Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning'', abbreviated RPS/SÄK). The period between 1939 and 1945 was marked with extensive foreign intelligence activity in Sweden, resulting in the arrest of numerous spies and enemy agents. Some of the most notorious post-war spies are
Fritiof Enbom Johan ''Fritiof'' Enbom (7 September 1918 – 11 September 1974) was a Swedish railway worker who was accused and convicted of being a spy for the Soviet Union in the 1950s. Born in Luleå, Enbom was a former worker at the Swedish State Railway ...
,
Hilding Andersson Hilding may refer to: ;Given name *Hilding Ekelund (1893–1984), Finnish architect *Hilding Ekman (1893–1966), Swedish runner *Hilding Faxén (1892–1970), Swedish physicist *Hilding Gavle (1901–1969), Swedish actor *Hilding Hagberg (1899–1 ...
, Stig Wennerström and
Stig Bergling Stig Svante Eugén Bergling, later Stig Svante ''Eugén'' Sandberg and ''Stig'' Svante Eugén Sydholt, (1 March 1937 – 24 January 2015) was a Swedish Security Service officer who spied for the Soviet Union. The Stig Bergling-affair, one of Sw ...
. In all of these cases the spying was done on behalf of the Soviet Union and the spies were convicted to life in prison. In the early 1970s, Sweden was rocked by a number of terrorist acts perpetrated by Croatian separatists. Some of the most significant cases were the 1971 Yugoslavian embassy attack in Stockholm and the hijacking of
Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130 was an aircraft hijacking which took place in Sweden and subsequently in Spain on 15 and 16 September 1972. While en route from Torslanda Airport in Gothenburg to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, three armed me ...
a year later. The inception of the first Terrorist Act in 1973 was an immediate policy upshot of this, which among other things gave the police the right to deport people affiliated with terrorist organisations without delay. These incidents also led to internal changes within the Department of Security, which received more resources. On 28 February 1986, Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated by an unknown gunman. The Department was not widely criticized, partly because Palme himself had declined protection on the night of the murder. It nevertheless sparked the resignation of the National Police Commissioner
Nils Erik Ã…hmansson Nils Erik Hjalmar Ã…hmansson (born 23 May 1941), is a Swedish civil servant. Ã…hmansson was National Police Commissioner from 1 January 1988 to 20 October 1988. He was chairman of the Swedish Kennel Club from 1993 to 2015. Career Ã…hmansson was ...
and the head of the Department,
Sune Sandström Sune Olof Hilding Sandström (26 June 1939 – 22 October 2011) was a Swedish police officer. He was Chief of the Swedish Security Service from 1987 to 1989. Early life Sandström was born on 26 June 1939 in Nyhem, Bräcke Municipality, Sweden, ...
, following the revelation of the
Ebbe Carlsson affair The Ebbe Carlsson affair ( sv, Ebbe Carlsson-affären) was a major political scandal in Sweden occurring during mid-1988. The affair came to public knowledge on 1 June 1988, when the evening newspaper '' Expressen'' revealed that Ebbe Carlsson, a ...
in 1988. The Swedish Security Service was established on 1 October 1989, on the recommendations put forward by a Government committee tasked with evaluating the Department of Security following the assassination of Palme. The new agency was—although still formally a part of the National Police Board—more independent, with its own Director-General and political oversight also increased. Furthermore, the Service took over the formal responsibility for all close protection tasks, which was previously shared with the National Police Board and the Stockholm County Police. On 10 September 2003, Minister for Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh was assassinated by
Mijailo Mijailović Mijailo Mijailović ( sr, Мијаило Мијаиловић; born 6 December 1978) is the self-confessed and convicted assassin of the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh, whom he stabbed on 10 September 2003 at the NK department s ...
, who was arrested two weeks later. The Government reviewed its procedures in the wake of the Lindh killing, which led to the doubling of the number of close-protection officers. On 1 January 2015, the police reorganised again into a unified agency, with the Swedish Security Service becoming a fully independent agency.


Areas of responsibility

The Swedish Security Service's main tasks and responsibilities are: * Counter-espionage – preventing and detecting espionage and other unlawful intelligence activities; targeting Sweden, its national interests abroad, and also foreign interests and refugees within the borders of Sweden. * Counter-subversion – to counter illegal subversive activities (e.g. violence, threats and harassment targeting elected representatives, public officials and journalists) intended to affect policy-making and implementation, or prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional rights and freedoms. * Counter-terrorism – preventing and detecting terrorism; this includes acts of terrorism directed against Sweden or foreign interests within the borders of Sweden, as well as terrorism in other countries and the financing and support of terrorist organisations in Sweden. * Dignitary protection – providing security and
close protection officer A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...
s at state visits, to senior public officials (e.g. the Speaker of the Riksdag, Prime Minister, members of the
Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
and the Government, including State Secretaries and the Cabinet Secretary), the
Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
, foreign diplomatic representatives, etc. As of 2014, the Service had 130 close protection officers. * Protective security – providing advice, analysis and oversight to companies and government agencies of importance to national security, in addition to background checks.


Organisation

The Swedish Security Service became a separate agency 1 January 2015, and is directly organised under the Ministry of Justice. Similar to other government agencies in Sweden, it is essentially autonomous. Under the
1974 Instrument of Government The Basic Laws of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges grundlagar) are the four constitutional laws of the Kingdom of Sweden that regulate the Swedish political system, acting in a similar manner to the constitutions of most countries. These four laws are: th ...
, neither the Government nor individual ministers have the right to influence how an agency decide in a particular case or on the application of legislation. This also applies to the Security Service, which instead is governed by general policy instruments. What sets the Security Service apart from other agencies is that most directives guiding the Service are classified on the grounds of national security, along with the bulk of the reports it produces. The Service is led by a Director-General, who is titled ''Head of the Swedish Security Service''. Operations are led by a Chief Operating Officer, reporting directly the Head of the Security Service. He is in turn assisted by a Deputy Chief Operating Officer and an Office for Operations. The Service is organised into four departments and a secretariat, each led by a Head of Department. *Includes regional units ;Department for Central Support Functions :Provides all support processes needed for day-to-day operations. ;Department of Intelligence Collection :In charge of intelligence gathering through the use of secret surveillance, informants or other interpersonal contacts, and by use of information technology (e.g.
signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...
). Included in the department are the regional units, which primarily conduct human intelligence (HUMINT) operations and offer local knowledge and support to HQ. ;Department of Security Intelligence :Responsible for security intelligence work, primarily aimed at providing the Service with data for decisions regarding security measures. ;Department of Security Measures :Deals with threat mitigation and risk reduction measures. Areas of responsibility include close protection, investigations, information security, physical security and background checks. ;Secretariat for Management Support :Tasked with providing support to management.


Offices

The Service has a regional presence and operate from several locations; from its headquarters in Solna and from six regional units with offices in Umeå, Uppsala, Örebro,
Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...
,
Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
and Malmö. The Service has approximately 1,100 employees, of which about 10 percent are stationed at the regional offices. The regional units are based on the geographic boundaries of several counties:


Head of the Swedish Security Service

List of current and past executive officers: * Mats Börjesson (1989–1994) * Anders Eriksson (1994–1999) *
Jan Danielsson Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...
(2000–2003) *
Klas Bergenstrand Klas or KLAS may refer to: * Klas (restaurant), a Czech restaurant in Cicero, Illinois, which operated from 1922 to 2016 * KLAS-TV, a television station (channel 8 analog/7 digital) licensed to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States * The ICAO airport c ...
(2004–2007) *
Anders Danielsson Sven Anders Herman Danielsson (born 27 December 1953) is a Swedish government official who served as Director-General and Head of the Swedish Security Service The Swedish Security Service ( sv, Säkerhetspolisen , abbreviated SÄPO ; until 19 ...
(2007–2012) *
Anders Thornberg Bengt Anders Ingvar Thornberg (born 1959) is the former Director-General and Head of the Swedish Security Service The Swedish Security Service ( sv, Säkerhetspolisen , abbreviated SÄPO ; until 1989 ''Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning' ...
(2012–2018) *
Klas Friberg Klas or KLAS may refer to: * Klas (restaurant), a Czech restaurant in Cicero, Illinois, which operated from 1922 to 2016 * KLAS-TV, a television station (channel 8 analog/7 digital) licensed to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States * The ICAO airport ...
(2018–present)


In popular culture

The Security Service's role in
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
counterintelligence is referred to in the second and third novels of the best-selling ''Millennium'' series by Swedish writer
Stieg Larsson Karl Stig-Erland "Stieg" Larsson (, ; 15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004) was a Swedish writer, journalist, and activist. He is best known for writing the ''Millennium'' trilogy of crime novels, which were published posthumously, starting in 2 ...
. "Swedish intelligence" was frequently referenced on the American Cold War spy drama television show '' The Americans'' . The male lead character on the show, Philip Jennings, had an alias who worked for Swedish intelligence.


See also

* List of intelligence agencies * List of protective service agencies * National Defence Radio Establishment *
Säpojoggen Säpojoggen refers to two annual jogging events in Sweden. One of them is arranged in Stockholm and the other one at the Almedalen park in Visby. The inspiration came from the 2010 wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westli ...
*
Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service Military Intelligence and Security Service ( sv, Militära underrättelse- och säkerhetstjänsten, MUST) is a division of the Swedish Armed Forces Central Command. MUST is both a foreign intelligence and a military security/counterintelligence ...


Notes


References


Citations


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{authority control Security Service Protective security units National security institutions Security Service Security Service 1989 establishments in Sweden 1989 in law Organizations based in Stockholm Government agencies established in 1989