In 2015 the Police reorganized its tactical capabilities under an umbrella known as NIK ( '' 'N' '' ationella '' ' I '' ' nsats '' ' k '' ' onceptet , or the National intervention concept ) . NIK established a framework for the existing regional units ( then known as Piketen ) and the National Task Force , it also added regional intervention teams in the non-metropolitan units . The main tactical units today are the Reinforced Regional Task Forces ( formerly known as Piketen , from the French word '' piquet '' ) which are tactical response units based in the major metropolitan areas of Stockholm , Gothenburg and Malmö . These units are sometimes seconded to neighbouring districts in connection with rapidly evolving events . These units were formed in the wake of two major incidents . On 23 August 1973 , a robbery in Stockholm devolved into a hostage-taking situation and subsequent six-day siege by the police . The phrase '' Stockholm syndrome '' was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot in connection with the protracted siege , as a state where hostages start to sympathize with their captor . One and a half years later the Red Army Faction occupied the West German Embassy in Stockholm , killing two hostages . Subsequently , the units were formed in 1979 as the regular police force were deemed insufficiently trained and ill-equipped to deal with similar events . Today the unit is used for particularly difficult or dangerous operations and often work in teams with a crisis negotiator . The National Task Force ( '' Nationella insatsstyrkan '' ) is a national counter terrorism/high-risk intervention unit under the command of the National Operations Department . It was originally formed in 1991 solely as a counter-terrorist task force in the wake of the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme , on the recommendations put forward by a 1988 Government inquiry . It has evolved into a national police resource deployed in extremely dangerous situations , e.g. high-risk interventions , search and surveillance operations , hostage situations , tactical negotiations and various kinds of underwater operations
assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme
Assassination of Olof Palme
Swedish Police Authority