Active 1979 - Present Type SWAT | Country Sweden Size ~200 operators | |
 | ||
Branch Swedish Police Authority Role Hostage rescue
High-risk arrests
Riot control | ||
Förstärkt Regional Insatsstyrka (English: Reinforced Regional Task Force), prior to 2015 officially known as Piketen (or Piketenheten) is a special operations asset of the Swedish Police Authority, similar to the SWAT in the United States. Piketen is called upon when situations occur that are too dangerous for ordinary police to handle such as hostage situations, serving high-risk arrest warrants and confronting armed criminals.
Contents
History
The main task for Piketen is dangerous situations in dangerous environments, e.g. hostage situations and situations including armed dangerous suspects. Other tasks are riot control, escorting VIP's/objects of value and serving high-risk arrest warrants etc.
Piketen has been active since 1979. Its creation was an answer to the events of the Norrmalmstorg robbery in 1973, where robber Jan-Erik "Janne" Olsson took four hostages at Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg ("Norrmalm's Square") in Stockholm.
Piket officers from Malmö and Gothenburg have been deployed with the EULEX Intervention Group in Kosovo (Special Team Six), tasked with high-risk operations such as hostage rescue and arresting armed criminals.
In 2011, Piketen has officially opened its unit for any female officers who wish to serve in the unit though none have passed selection yet.
Due to the major reorganization efforts of 2015, Piketen was reclassified as "Förstärkt Regional Insatsstyrka", or in English, "Reinforced Regional Task Force.
Organization
Piketen are stationed in the three largest cities of Sweden: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö but can by request be put to use nationwide all over Sweden. Smaller forces of similar quality are available in police regions Bergslagen, Middle, East and North, often times having similar selection and training. Officers in these units normally don't operate in the intervention capacity full time, but the normal patrolling on a daily basis.
Training
Piketen spends about 30% of its time on training, which is mainly focused on high-risk intervention. For example; one or multiple dangerous perpetrators in rural terrain or in an urban environment and perpetrators in houses or vehicles (also including hostage rescue). Such dangerous interventions require a lot of advanced tactical training. The unit strives to resolve any given situation as calmly as possible to avoid injury or loss of life and uses highly trained negotiators when tactically possible. Circumstances dictate whether officers operate in uniform or civilian clothing. Piketen mostly make use of unmarked civilian vehicles or special assault vehicles.
The units officers are well-trained in different methods of entry (MOE), such as rappelling and door breaching. They also receive training in close target reconnaissance, close quarters battle, basic medical care, tactical self-defense, and various weapon systems.
Gear
The main weapons of Piketen are the Heckler & Koch MP5, the Heckler & Koch G36C and the SIG Sauer 226 as sidearm. Piketen had sniper rifles on trial but the project was scrapped and the usage of sniper rifles was limited to the counter-terrorism unit of the Swedish police, the National Task Force.
They are also equipped with Sandcats used to transport its officers.