Polisiär våldsutövning - En studie om polisens befogenhet att bruka våld

Sammanfattning: Swedish police have been granted an authority to use force to maintain public order and safety besides preventing and prosecuting crime. The Police use of force is regulated in Article 10 of the Police Act and in the general grounds for exemption in Chapter 24 of the Penal Code. Since police violence has increased the last couple of years’, questions have been raised regarding the right to use force. The number of victims to police shootings are three times as many compared to five years ago. Compared to USA the number of victims of police shootings are few. USA has had major issues regarding police misconducts and nearly 2 000 have been shot by the police during the past two years. This thesis will focus on the right of the Swedish police to use force. The use of force is a violation of the constitutional protection of physical seizures and can only be allowed if the violation is justified by law. The aim of this thesis is thus to clarify under what circumstances such a violation can be justified. As an interesting comparison to the Swedish legal position, this thesis will also give an outlook on the American law regarding police use of force. Through the traditional legal method, with regards to the security of persons and the rule of law, this thesis has the purpose of defining Swedish law and to determine predictability in the field of police use of force. The principle of legality and the principle of predictability will be essential in this thesis. The case law and the provisions will be presented in the thesis, followed by a study in the correlation between the two separate provisions. Some conclusions are reached after reviewing the legal framework, doctrine, cases and the legislative history. To establish a clear limit to when police force is prohibited has not been possible, every case needs to be decided individually with regards to the circumstances in each case. Although the presentation contains a description regarding which circumstances justify an act of police force. The lack of provision, precedent and guidance through the legislative history regarding the correlation between the different regulations in Swedish law has a negative effect on the predictability. The absence of Swedish precedents concerning police shootings is also a factor that is contributing to an uncertain legal position and complicates the possibility of predicting the application of law. In the analysis, certain conclusions are reached regarding the differences between Swedish and American law. There are several fundamental disparities concerning the legal systems, including the fact that USA, which is applying common law, has few stated provisions. The comparison between Swedish and American law has shown distinctions in the justifiableness assessment about the police use of deadly force. American law is shown to have a stricter view on the use of deadly force against fleeing suspects compared to Swedish law, but are more likely to allow the use of deadly force against a person who constitutes a threat to public safety.