Crime Archives • Page 2 of 2 • SwedeInternational

22 Oct. – eavesdropping police

fighting crime one mobile at a time
pic: tidbits.com

Measures to fight the rising crime rate in Sweden have been mentioned in this blog before. It’s been a month now since multi-party talks on crime fighting initiatives failed (see this post) and the Social Democrats, Green, and Center parties went out with their own 34-point to-do list. Today, the first (and as of yet, the only one) of these measures is ready to be sent out for comments (remissvar).

This first measure out concerns making it easier for the police to plant programs on private mobile telephones. The programs would allow them to decrypt text messages sent on the mobile and listen in on conversations. In some cases, they will even be able to control the mobile phone’s camera and microphone. It will not be allowed, however, to implant these programs in phones belonging to people in some professions, like doctors, journalists and lawyers.

This measure is not going to be widely used, Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg was careful to point out. It will only be used in cases of “serious criminality” (allvarlig brottslighet). “This is what the police and prosecutor have wanted almost the most” he said (DN.se/avlyssning).

The Moderate party was positive to this measure, saying it’s what they’ve wanted ever since the beginning. In fact, they would have liked to see an even stronger list of measures, that would actually “break the pattern and make a difference” said John Forsell, Moderate party spokesperson (DN.se/avlyssning).

Assuming the comments from the various review committees are positive, the new law is meant to go into effect March 1, 2020.

10 Oct. – Danish border controls, and more

Hi, why’re you coming to Denmark today?
pic: thelocal.dk

Going from Sweden to Denmark? Bring some good ID, because new border controls are on the way. In response to an uptick in explosions in the Copenhagen area (13 this year, according to DN today), the Danish government will be instituting random ID checks on train, ferry and car crossing points starting November 12th.

This is only one measure in a packet of measures to combat crime that were announced in Denmark today. Although the Danes are not saying that Sweden is the source of their crime wave, they were certainly not pleased that at least two serious crimes were committed by Swedes criminals in Denmark recently (see this post).

Swedish police have been checking the IDs of travelers from Denmark to Sweden since 2015, in the beginning because of immigration issues with non-Danes, not Danish criminality. The border controls have since been justified as a way of averting terror attacks. Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg said he welcomed Danish efforts to fight crime in the Öresund region, and took the opportunity to mention that, by the by, house break-ins went down in south Sweden after Sweden instituted its border controls (SvD.se/Damberg). (They did?)

Among other things, the new Danish measures will allow more cameras, will allow digital recognition of license plates, and make an attack on an official building also an attack on the Danish state. Also the punishment for possession of explosive material will be more severe.

Damberg, being part of the more right-wing flank of the Social Democratic party, might just be looking a little more green than red when looking at the Danish measures. Similar (if less strong) crime-fighting ideas for Sweden were dashed when the multi-party talks failed in mid September (see posts here and here).

Having border controls between two EU countries goes against EU rules, and exceptions like the Swedish-Danish border must be approved and be temporary. The current Swedish border controls expire on November 11th – (coincidentally?) the day before Denmark’s are supposed to kick in. Sweden has had border controls for Denmark and Germany in place for four years, but it’s getting harder to keep justifying them, even for terror reasons. Government coalition partner the Green party is opposed to the border controls.

Still, Sweden and Denmark are hardly alone in re-constructing borders within the previously border-less EU. According to a roundup by DN here, France has a 4 meter high fence in Calais to prevent migrants gaining access to the Channel Tunnel. There are also fences of various construction along Hungary’s southern border, between Austria and Slovenia, between Slovenia and Croatia and between North Macedonia and Greece.

More than ever, Sweden’s own Ylva Johansson, the likely EU Home Affairs Commissioner, will have her work cut out for her on the issue of migration.

21 sep. – talks fail over gang-related crime

Discussions between all of Sweden’s political parties – except SD, as discussed in this blog post – on measures to combat rising gang violence has been a hot topic. It’s been weeks. It’s been a couple meetings. And it’s all just ended with the Moderate, Liberal and Christian Democratic parties leaving the deliberations in frustration.

Johan Forssell of the Moderate party has been vocal about his impatience with the process for a while now. On Friday, he said that the government had until Saturday to get its proposal together. Today is Saturday, and the Moderate, Liberal and Christian Democratic parties have now walked because the government’s proposal did not include some of the reforms that they wanted. These included increasing the number of police working on combating gang violence, doubling the sentence for gang-related crimes, getting rid of the youth rebate for offenders under 21 (straffrabatt för unga) and scrapping the “multi-crime discount” (mängdrabatt).

Just as an aside, the multi-crime discount is a particularly interesting Swedish sentencing praxis in which the more criminal offenses committed, the less time is served for the crimes after the first one. For example, say you have committed three crimes of similar severity. You are given the full sentence for the first crime, and the time you serve for the other crimes is reduced. This means that if all three crimes would normally get two years jail time, you would serve two years for the first crime, less than two years for the second crime and even less again for the third crime. If you are of the criminal bent, you definitely want to plan your crimes so that they all come up in court at once.

At some point in history this might have made sense. It’s hard to say. But at this point in history, the Moderate party and several others are saying it’s not making sense anymore.

The government, meanwhile, is going ahead with its own list of measures, being, one must assume, the more low-hanging fruit that everyone agreed on. This list includes things like getting rid of the youth rebate after repeated criminality, giving the police more leeway for reading encrypted communications, increased sentences for conveying narcotics, and increased sentences for gang-on-gang crimes. I’m not making this up. You can read about it in SvD here.

Further, the government has plans to make it easier for the police to get a search warrant for gang-related premises, and to create a national program to help people who want to get out of being in a gang.

It’s possible the Moderate party’s Johan Forssell painted himself into a corner with his ultimatum, and then had to follow up with leaving the negotiations. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to sign off on what they could agree on, and then go on to say that he would have liked a heck of a lot more but that the other parties said no. That would have forced the other parties to explain their no’s, rather than Forsell looking a just a tiny bit pouty. The Center Party chose to stay (just another example of the ever widening split in the former alliance) and looks either soft on the Social Democrats, or smart. Or both.

Sep. 14 – at least Social Democrats still no. 1

pic: svd.se/ny-svd-sifo-sd-far-hogsta-siffran-nagonsin

The Sweden Democrats are at a new high in the polls. At 20.2 % they are again the second most popular party in Sweden, with a 2% increase in support since the last poll. The increase is largely due to increased support in Stockholm. It is also said that SD gains when the other parties try to shut it out, like in the current all-party-minus-SD talks on how to meet the rise in violent crime ().

Just today’s headlines – “Man taken into custody after morning’s shooting” () and “Explosion in Lund – female student seriously injured” () – are examples of what voters are waking up to. Morning’s shooting? It makes you wonder what’s on the agenda for the afternoon. The student was injured in the explosion directed at the corner store below her on the first floor.

It’s a dangerous development when people don’t feel safe. It’s a dangerous development when what politicians do and what they describe isn’t matched by what people are experiencing. It’s easy to understand that people cast about for something untried, since what’s been tried isn’t addressing their concerns. The government, and the parties they’re working with, need to up their game. That at least the Social Democratic party is still no. 1 is not good enough.

6 Sep. – 6 shades of fighting crime

The shooting today on Kungsholmen is perhaps more a news item than politics, but in some cases it’s very hard to separate the two. A case in point is this latest crime: Although it might not be gang-related or occupation-related, it’s still worrying that with all the strict gun laws and increased enforcing and pressure on the police and public awareness it still seems, to someone, that it’s of no particular trouble to get a gun and shoot someone where they stand. Policies shaped by the government are clearly not particularly adequately addressing the issues that allow shootings to happen, this often, and with this level of impunity.

With that in mind, it’s time to revisit the full list of measures to combat crime that Sweden’s political parties – minus the Sweden Democrats – are currently discussing. SvD supplied a list in the paper today (svd.se):

Crown witnesses. Anyone who has watched a single cop drama on TV knows what this is – a suspect can negotiate a reduced charge if they testify against another criminal suspect in a court of law. Everyone hates it that a scumbag gets a reduced charge for narcing on another, but there are plenty of studies that show it’s effective in putting away people that need to be put away.
Anonymous witnesses. No one wants to testify in person against a violent criminal anymore. Evidence has proven that doing this is often extremely bad for one’s health. And one’s family’s health. And for one’s property. And for one’s well-being as it’s really stressful to look over your shoulder every minute of the day. Allowing people to testify anonymously is one suggestion to make more people willing to testify. So far, it’s had some success in the Netherlands, as well as in Denmark and Norway.
Out-of-bounds areas (vistelseförbud). This means that there would be designated areas, particular to the person in question, in which they would not be allowed to set foot. This could be the area in which the person earlier committed a crime, for example. It wouldn’t be for forever, but at least would be for a certain amount of time. The point is to make it difficult to go back to the usual criminal activity, and to make it easier to track down the person if need be.
Stop Shooting projects (sluta skjuta-projekt). This one comes out of the US via Malmö, and the word on its effectiveness there has not yet been tabulated. The idea is that various authorities and welfare agencies share information on certain known, violent criminals in a cooperative effort to divert the criminal paths these people are already on into more wholesome directions. This is the only proposal that the Left Party supports. The other political parties in Sweden are waiting to see what the actual result of these efforts are.
Obligatory expulsion if convicted of serious violent crime or sexual assault. Just to be clear, this would only apply to citizens of foreign countries. Currently, SvD notes, criminals of this category can avoid being banished by claiming a close connection with Sweden and/or that things would go especially badly for them if they were sent back to their country of origin. This measure is only popular with the party of the Sweden Democrats. If it’s popular with anyone else, they’re keeping quiet about it.
Taking away the Youth Sentence Rebate. Convicted criminals that are under 21 years old currently get a reduced sentence, because “youth”. The suggestion to take this away is based on the fact that younger and younger people are committing more and more serious crimes. No one actually thinks they’re going to get caught, regardless of whether they’re 8, 18 or 21, so it’s uncertain what deterrent effect this would have.

Taken one-on-one, it is unlikely that a dip in crime would be the result of anyone of these proposals, but together they would certainly send a signal that crime is being taken more seriously than before. If a signal is enough.

1 sep. – Kristersson’s top ten list

In advance of his “summer speech,” Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson has sent 10 suggestions to combat crime that the Moderate Party is willing to support and cooperate on to Prime Minister, and Social Democrat party leader, Stefan Löfven. Although the text isn’t public yet, several points have leaked, including a proposal to allow court witnesses to be anonymous.

Anonymous witnesses has been a recurring debate over the past couple years, as crime has risen and the number of people willing to witness, in particular in connection with gang violence, has decreased to near zero levels. Witnesses have been threatened into staying quiet, have been assaulted, and even murdered. A change of this magnitude in the Swedish court system would be difficult to get through, but already last April the government started an investigation into seeing if it would be possible under Swedish constitutional law: There are many that believe it isn’t. One country that Sweden could look at as an example is Norway, where anonymous witnesses are allowed.

SvD reports that Kristersson’s list also contains a suggestion for making it easy, and legal, for police to carry out body searches, in certain zones only, if the person is suspected, for example, of carrying an illegal weapon. No concrete suspicion must be presented for a body search to take place. The suggestion list is also said to include lowering the threshold for requiring the police to take someone into custody, and doubling the sentence of any gang member that is convicted of committing a crime. According to Kristersson, the increase in violent crime is something that requires just a broad mobilisation, and presumably some stiff law-making.

So far there has been no answer from Löfven, which is natural since perhaps it isn’t considered so seemly for the Prime Minister to jump when Kristersson says so. Kristersson says he expects an answer though: “Either he’s ready to make changes and lead the country out of this crisis, or he’s not.” “In the end,” Kristersson finished, “you have to lead the country or leave the job.”

29 aug. – politicians, affronted

“The biggest problems in society today are both the shootings and the explosions.”

There aren’t many that would disagree with Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg on this. Two women died this week, one shot at point blank range while out walking – and carrying her baby – and the other from shots fired from the street while she was in her home. These two outrageous incidents are only the latest. But the fact that the victims this week are women, and that they weren’t killed at the hands of a male acquaintance (like in the vast majority of cases), made for a barrage of tweets from the country’s politicians.

“Complete darkness,” chirped Center Party leader Annie Lööf, “criminals have lost all respect for human life.” “Only lame and disgusting monsters go after a new mother” tweeted a shocked, just shocked, Minister for Justice and Migration Morgan Johansson: “They will be hunted to the end of the world if needed.” And the Swedish Prime Minister was not late in chiming in. “This is an incomprehensibly evil action, that makes me and the whole country disgusted. This has no place in our society. We will steadfastly conquer these murderers.” It’s possible these statements of extreme indignation sounded better in Swedish, but they didn’t, really.

Since these are only the latest events in a rising level of violent crime, there have been a slew of suggestions for countering it over the last few years. “More police!” has been a recurring refrain, but this takes time and good will. Police in Sweden have traditionally been seen as only slightly better than old gum scraped off the bottom of your shoe. This attitude should perhaps be changed first, although there is no sign of this from the government.

Two steps that appear more likely to be implemented in the nearer future is a reduction in the number of hoops a police department must hop through to put up a surveillance camera, and an initiative to require registration of all new SIM card buyers. True to form, neither of these “quickest” measures are likely to be in place before well after the new year. If things continue as they’ve been going, 23 more people won’t live to see these measures enacted.