The Swedish Police operates its own helicopter unit since nearly half a century back. The Police Wing, or Polisflyget as it is called in Swedish, is subordinated the National Criminal Police (Rikskriminalen) and employs roughly 55 officers.

The Police Wing operates a fleet of six EC135s and one Jet Ranger. The EC135s are spread throughout five air stations – Malmö (1), Gothenburg (1), Stockholm (2), Östersund (1) and Boden (1). The Jet Ranger is stationed at the main base in Gothenburg and serves as a flight trainer at the organization’s own flight school (FTO).

The helicopters are available 24/7 and can be requested by any police unit in the country. The most frequent assignments are surveillance tasks and search operations.

Although being a government authority the Police Wing is managed as a civil helicopter company and carries the structure stipulated by EASA, supervised by the Swedish Transport Agency. The pilots are police officers that have served at least five years in the force before gaining a Commercial Pilot License and an extensive mission training.

New base, new helicopterOn 13 October 2011 the National Police Board gave the National Criminal Police the duty to establish a new air station in southern Sweden and to buy a new helicopter for the operation. The acquisition process was later canceled in favor for a future decision to replace the whole fleet of EC135s.

Replacing the fleetIn September 2012 National Police Chief Bengt Svenson took the formal decision to replace the Police Wing's six EC135s, as well as to expand the fleet with an additional machine that will substitute for the aircraft lost in 2007. A total of seven new helicopters will be purchased through a public procurement process.