Pressured to learn? Swedish police experiences of curbing organized crime

Abstract

This research takes an interest in the police's capacity to learn and adapt in an on-going policy failure. Using the literature on organisational learning and adaptation, it investigates how the police combine exploration of new possibilities and exploitation of old certainties. This article delves into the Swedish police's adaptation to a wave of organised and aggravated robberies that in the years around 2005 seemed out of control. It argues that the Swedish police need to create organizational ambidexterity 1 by implementing a mix of exploitation and exploration, as well as engaging societal actors external to the police when old practices run dry. This means that the law and order sector needs to refine their competences, and utilise new ideas and promote innovation from companies and other authorities for dealing with the tasks at hand. Furthermore, the organisational theory toolbox has proven that it has great potential for diagnosing current learning and adaptation efforts within the law and order sector, as they happen.