Crime in Sweden at ‘never-before-seen levels’

Crime in Sweden is “exceptional” and has reached a level that’s “never been seen before”, writes national police chief Anders Thornberg in a joint opinion piece with other senior police officials, published in daily newspaper DN on Monday morning.

They argue that the nature of crime has become more complex.

“Plaintiffs, witnesses and perpetrators who previously spoke to police and testified in court now almost never provide any information. This makes investigations significantly more difficult. Successful prosecution often requires other, hard-to-find evidence,” they write, calling for more staff, increased cooperation between Swedish authorities and legislation that would give police more effective tools at their disposal.

In the latest episode of The Local’s Sweden in Focus podcast, we speak with award-winning crime reporter Diamant Salihu about why fatal shootings reached record levels last year. You can listen to the episode on our podcast page. Or you can find it here:

• Sweden in Focus on Apple Podcasts

• Sweden in Focus on Spotify 

• Sweden in Focus on Google Podcasts

Swedish vocabulary: police – polis

Teenage boy held on suspicion of murder

A 15-year-old boy has been detained on suspicion of shooting another teenage boy to death at a restaurant in Skogås, south of Stockholm, at the end of January. Three boys, aged between 15 and 17, are now under investigation in connection with the shooting.

The 15-year-old boy’s lawyer said he denied the allegations.

There has been a series of shootings and explosions in the Stockholm area since Christmas Day, when a gang criminal was shot dead in the suburb of Rinkeby. Police have confirmed that several of the incidents are linked, but there is not yet any evidence of links between them and the Skogås shooting, the prosecutor told the TT newswire.

Swedish vocabulary: detained – häktad

New poll shows rising support for Social Democrats

The centre-left Social Democrats, who have been in opposition since Sweden’s September election, soar to 36.7 percent in a new poll-of-polls by Kantar Sifo on behalf of public radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio Ekot. They got 30.33 percent in the election.

Together with its left-wing allies the party gets 54.0 percent, almost ten percentage points more than the ruling Moderates and its allies. The Moderates themselves climb to 18.8 percent, overtaking the far-right Sweden Democrats who drop to 18.0 percent.

The CEO of Kantar Sifo told Ekot that much of the public debate is currently focused on the economy, an area where the Social Democrats usually enjoy strong confidence.

Swedish vocabulary: support – stöd

Stockholm public transport operator fined over body cameras

Stockholm’s local public transport operator SL will have to cough up eight million kronor in fines over how the company’s ticket inspectors used their body cameras.

According to the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, the cameras recorded too long periods of time and were used to identify fare dodgers, in violation of the rules. It originally fined SL 16 million kronor but the appeals court lowered the sum, writes DN.

SL after the initial fine in 2021 changed their cameras recording time to no more than 15 seconds, and started taking still images rather than filming travellers without a ticket.

Swedish vocabulary: a fare dodger – en tjuvåkare / en plankare