Severe criticism of the Policy Authority for not drawing up a police report until almost ten months after the report was initially made

Summary of the decision: A person visited the local police station in Gävle to report an offence and handed in a written report. However, it took almost ten months for the police to draw up a report. During that time, a detective inspector had contacted the person who made the report and questioned the criminal nature of the what they reported and discussed individual aspects of the description of the offence. The Parliamentary Ombudsman states that the inspector instead should have promptly ensured that the complaint was processed and allowed an investigator to consider any questions during a subsequent review.

The Police Authority is severely criticised for not initially dealing with the report with sufficient urgency and for taking an unacceptably long time to draw up a police report. The detective inspector is also criticised for their actions.

The investigation also revealed that the possibilities for reporting an offence at the police station in question were very limited. The Parliamentary Ombudsman emphasises what he has said in other contexts, that is, that a lack of accessibility can damage public trust in the police and reduce the willingness to report crime.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman also makes statements on an authority’s obligation to assist the Parliamentary Ombudsman when it is conducting a review.