Norrköping’s Police Authority (1874-1879)

Go directly to the search page (Swedish only)

Norrköping’s Police Authority was founded on March 18, 1825 by the King of Sweden. Unofficially, however, Norrköping’s Police department had a Police Authority from 1822. In certain larger cities, Police Authorities were established to work with the magistrates as a supervisor over police activities (in Sweden, magistrates existed from medieval times until the municipal reforms of 1862 and were the highest decision-making body in cities with their own legal system). Police Authorities disappeared when policing was taken over by the State in 1965. The Police Authority was located centrally in Stockholm, where it was a part of the governor of the Royal Castle and there were divisions for Gothenburg, Malmö, Eskilstuna, Karlskrona, Örebro and Norrköping. The role of the Police Authority was to investigate, prosecute and sentence in smaller cases. There were two different Police Authorities. One comprised a police chief with a pair of assistants, who oversaw both judging and other police activities. In the second, activities were divided into two departments: one for judging and the other (including the police chief) for other police activities.

The Norrköping's Police Authority's Register

The transcribed material has served as a kind of police information. When a prisoner was set free, information about the prisoner was sent to the different Police Authorities which made it possible to supervise the prisoner. The principal register consists of a main register and a register of portraits. The digitalised register is Norrköping's Police Authority's register with information collected from the main register and the register of portraits for male prisoners in Sweden during the 18th century containing 3.500 records with information about:

Register from Norrköping’s Police Authority
Register from Norrköping’s Police Authority
  • Profession
  • Name
  • Date set free
  • City where the prisoner was (nationally) registered
  • Date of birth
  • Parish
  • County
  • Information about previous committed crimes
  • Sentence, from which authority and date
  • Punishment and when the prisoner started to do time
  • City to which the prisoner was sent away to
  • Amount – own money and money saved from earnings during prison time
  • Description and other distinguishing features
  • Portrait of the prisoner
Transcription

The database of Norrköping’s Police Authority covers the period 1874–1888, volumes DVE:1–13. The transcription from the original tomes to the on-line databases has maintained the notation, spelling, etc. of the original documents. The exception is that dates have been written in the modern style, to be more compatible with on-line searching. All transcription was done directly from the originals and the Regional Archives in Vadstena, Sweden, supplied all the fines registers. ArkivData in Norrköping have carried out digitalization of the originals. The register contains 3 500 records and is only available in Swedish.

References to the Database

Regional Archives in Vadstena, Norrköping’s Police Authority, 1874–1888, volumes DVE:1–13. Linköping University Electronic Press, https://doi.org/10.3384/db.polis

 Search the database >>> (swedish only)