Sweden
Forensic science in Sweden
The laboratories are inside the Police Authority, and the work is done on the instruction of whoever is leading the preliminary investigation.
Facts verified:
This is a static reference page, not a live feed — check anything you intend to act on with the official source.
Nationellt forensiskt centrum runs the laboratories: on the Police Authority’s own account it “driver Polismyndighetens samtliga forensiska labb” and exists “i flera städer”. Forensic examinations of traces and material from criminal investigations are carried out there “på uppdrag av förundersökningsledare” — on the instruction of the person leading the preliminary investigation.
AnalysisThe tasking rule is the fact that places this system. Swedish preliminary investigations are led either by the police or by a prosecutor depending on the case, so the forensic laboratories take their work from inside the investigative chain rather than from a body outside it. That is the opposite arrangement to the one in several systems on this platform, where the institute serves the court, the prosecution and the police alike and is constituted apart from all three.
Digital forensics is not confined to the laboratories. The page records that a large part of forensic evidence now concerns digital traces, and that this work is carried out at the centre, in the police regions and at the national operative department.
Sources
Sources
Nationellt forensiskt centrum — Polismyndigheten
Polismyndigheten (Sverige) · Government publication · link verified 2026-09-18
SCOPE: Nationellt forensiskt centrum, and only what the Police Authority’s own page says about it. Read directly. Supports that at NFC “utför vi forensiska undersökningar av spår och material från brottsutredningar på uppdrag av förundersökningsledare” — forensic examinations carried out on the instruction of the person leading the preliminary investigation; and that NFC “driver Polismyndighetens samtliga forensiska labb” and exists “i flera städer”. Supports that a large part of forensic evidence now concerns digital traces, and that this work is done at NFC, in the regions and at the national operative department. LIMITATION, and the reason this record is cited narrowly: the page read is part of the authority’s recruitment section rather than an institutional description, so it establishes where the laboratories sit and who tasks them, and nothing about NFC’s legal form, governance or accreditation. The institute’s own subdomain could not be read — it presents a certificate that does not match its hostname — and no certificate check was disabled.