In 2015 a reform made the national Swedish police even more centralized as a means for improving efficiency and results. This was exactly fifty years after the original nationalization of the police – a reform said to be done in the same spirit of centralizing for efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and problematize the arguments behind the nationalization in 1965. How and why was the police nationalized and what was the chief political arguments for doing this? The paper also aims to discuss what the meaning of efficiency in policing means politically.