Reinforced Regional Task Force (), prior to 2015 officially known as Piketen (or Piketenheten) is a regional

special operations Special operations or special ops are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by "specially designated, organized, selected, trained, and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment." Special operations ma ...

asset of the

Swedish Police Authority The Swedish Police Authority () is the national police, police force (''Polisen'') of Sweden. The first modern police force in Sweden was established in the mid-19th century, and the police remained in effect under Municipalities of Sweden, local ...

, similar to

SWAT A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations. SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...

type units in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

History

RRTF is called upon when situations occur that are too dangerous for ordinary

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

to handle such as hostage situations, serving high-risk arrest warrants and confronting armed criminals. The main responsibility of the RRTF is interventions in dangerous situations or dangerous environments, e.g. hostage situations and situations including armed dangerous suspects. Other duties are riot control, escorting VIP's/objects of value and serving high-risk arrest warrants etc. RRTF, formerly known as 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. RRTF operators from

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

and

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

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, the RRTF officially opened up 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", RRTF.

Organization

The RRTFs are stationed in the three largest cities of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and

, providing a day round, year round tactical intervention capability in Police regions Stockholm, West and South. However the units can at request be put to use nationwide all over Sweden. The RRTFs are part of the National Intervention Concept (NIK). Launched in 2015, this concept standardized and regulated the employment, structure and capabilities of the Swedish polices tactical units. The NIK divides the various tactical units into three levels of capabilities:

Training

To be eligible for RRTF selection an officer must have at least 18 months of service, but exceptions can be made if the applicant possesses skills or experiences valuable for the units. After a series of physical and psychological tests successful applicants progress to a final week long field exercise, commonly known as "hell week". Applicants who successfully complete "hell week" then progress to 6 months of training before claiming an operational slot with their unit. The selection and training process has an attrition rate of roughly 90%.

Daily duties

The RRTFs spend about 30% of their 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's officers are well-trained in different methods of entry (MOE), such as

rappelling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down a static or fixed rope, in cont ...

and

door breaching Door breaching is a process used by military, police, or emergency services to force open closed or locked doors. A wide range of methods are available depending on the door's opening direction (inward or outward), construction materials, etc., ...

. They also receive training in close target reconnaissance, close quarters battle, TCCC, self-defense, and various weapon systems. Officers are then specially trained as medics, breachers, specialist drivers etc.

Gear

All operators are equipped with ballistic Ops Core helmets, plate carriers and flame retardant clothing. Both the NTF and RRTFs were equipped with Sandcats these vehicles have since been transferred to the Police EOD. The units 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. They mostly make use of unmarked civilian vehicles, primarily Toyota Land Cruisers and Volkswagen Multivans, or special assault vehicles.

Similar units

* –

National Task Force The National Task Force (, ''NI''), formerly known as the National Task Force of the Swedish Civilian Police (), is a police tactical unit within the National Operations Department of the Swedish Police Authority. History After the assassinat ...

* – SEK * –

RAID RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...

* – FBI SWAT

Footnotes

Notes and references

* * * {{cite web, title=Piketen, url=https://polisen.se/Stockholms_lan/Om-polisen/Specialkompetenser/Piketen/, publisher=

, accessdate=4 August 2015, language=Swedish

External links

Efterlyst Special: Piketen
May–June, 2013 on

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

; 2x40 min. Swedish-language documentary series about the unit.