Tag: police

On friendly favoritism

and worse

Spotlight on the Swedish police
image source: Johan Nilsson, TT / www.arbetaren.se

Nepotism comes from the Latin word for nephew, “nepos.” Already in the 1650s, the word nepotism was used to describe granting favors to favorites – in particular, granting high offices to family members. It was first used to refer to the papal habit of appointing “nephews” (or illegitimate sons) to high positions in the church.

Nepotism has other family members. Cronyism, discrimination, bias, and plain old favoritism are other names for giving unwarranted preferential treatment. A beloved child has many names, as the Swedish saying goes. Nepotism’s offshoots only show how common it is perceived to be.

Calling all units

Nepotism and suspicions of nepotism are crippling for any organization. They are even worse when they concern the highest positions in an organization. Especially an organization founded on a mission to uphold the rule of law.

The death of Stockholm’s Chief of Police Mats Löfving was the tragic end to a case of perceived nepotism. Löfving was relieved from his post pending the results of an investigation into his promoting his subordinate colleague and girlfriend to a high position in the police. He was also suspected of influencing the salary she was paid, of giving her the right to bear a service weapon, and lying about his relationship in the first place. The day after the investigation’s results were made public, absolving him from some transgressions but raising the possibility of others, Löfving was found dead in his Norrköping apartment.

Just helping out a friend

While cases of outright nepotism or discrimination are rare, cases of “friendly favoritism” or vänskapskorruption are considered common in Sweden. A study from Transparency International in 2021 found that nearly a third of respondents believed that the level of corruption has increased over the last five years. Twenty percent of Swedish respondents added that they themselves have availed themselves of personal contacts to skip a queue or otherwise get access to a service. No one can deny that personal contacts are key to finding, and getting, a job.

Friendly favoritism or outright nepotism in law enforcement, however, is particularly grievous. Not only is public trust undermined, but the morale and motivation of an already understaffed and pressed police force crumbles. As late as May, 2022, a questionnaire conducted by the Police Union found that four of ten police were actively looking for another job. This, in the midst of almost daily shootings and bombings, is a catastrophe.

A glimmer

Tragically and ironically, it was Löfving who in 2020 first broke the silence and went public on just how widespread clans’ criminal activities actually were in the Stockholm area. It caused a furor, but it also opened a lot of eyes. His death might do the same.  

Operation Rimfrost is over, with mixed results

Special operation Rimfrost leaving the scene
pic: Izabelle Nordfjell/TT

Operation Rimfrost is officially over tomorrow. Rimfrost was the name given to the special police operation last fall after the particularly spectacular shooting death of a woman holding a baby on the street in Malmö last year. The outrage that followed was such that all resources were going to be gathered together for a particular period of intense police presence and law enforcement.

Rimfrost was called, in official Swedish terms, a särskild händelse, which allowed for increased police authority to arrest, charge and hold suspects. As written about in this post, hopes were that more criminals would be taken off the street and that there would be with far fewer shootings as a result. The results would be seen in six months, it was said.

Sadly, six months have now gone by and nationally, shootings have only increased. In official-speak, SvD reports, Rimfrost “had an effect but did not reach the target.” The effect spoken of is in the Malmö and Uppsala region, where shootings and explosions have actually decreased. The number of shootings in the last two years (from well before Rimfrost started, however), has been cut in half. Even the number of explosions has been slightly reduced. The number of shootings and explosions, however, has only increased outside Malmö and Uppsala, making the the total numbers go up. One of the features of these special operations is that police officers can easily be moved to one area from another, reducing forces in one area to increase them in another. The increase in crime outside focus areas has perhaps been the result.

Another result of the Rimfrost operation has been, alas, to see how criminal activity is truly focused in exposed areas. “Crimes are committed more often in those areas that are classified as vulnerable. Crimes are committed up to eight times more often in these areas than outside these areas” said Mats Löfving, chief of the National operations division (Noa): “For criminality to go down […] it is absolutely necessary to fortify security in these areas.” However, as Stefan Hector – chief of national command for Rimfrost – noted, Rimfrost was more meant to break the development of a pattern in shooting and explosions rather than to cure social ills.

Minister for the Interior, Mikael Damberg, said that he “had hoped for fewer shootings” but said he would not call the operation a failure: “The police have become much more aggressive. I see that as a success.”

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.

3 Oct. – Torell tragedy court outcome

“The violence used was not manifestly unjustifiable.”

With these words, SvD reports, the Stockholm county court decided that the three police officers charged in the Eric Torell case (see this blog post) were not guilty. Two officers had been charged with misconduct, one for shooting after Eric Torell had allegedly already started turning away, and the other for the way in which the response was handled. The third officer, whose bullet was the one which allegedly killed Eric Torell, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The case centered on how the police understood the situation, and if their actions were motivated. The prosecutor argued in court that the police officers ought to have stopped to see what effect their shooting had had after the first 23 bullets had been fired, before firing the two others, of which one killed Eric Torell.

The court decided that it was not sufficiently determined in what order the shots were fired, what exactly Eric Torell’s movements were in the inner courtyard where he was shot and what his movements had been when he was shot. The court also determined that the sequence of events on that tragic night were not as the prosecutor had presented: “It is not reasonable to ask that the police stop and check the effect of their shooting in the manner the prosecutor contended.” The court also denied the request for compensation (skadestånd).

The court’s decision was not unanimous: one of the three lay judges (nämdemän) said that the violence used against Eric Torell was “clearly indefensible. It is obvious that Eric didn’t fire a single shot. With that in mind, it is indefensible that two more shots were fired, when Eric had turned his back to the police, without finding out what impact their intensive fire had already had” (DNEricTorell). It was also obvious that the police panicked, wrote the lay judge, in that only one of the total 25 bullets fired hit Eric Torell in the front.

Eric Torell’s mother, Katarina Söderberg, said afterwards that the result didn’t change anything. “Eric’s not coming back. The outcome was pretty expected. When we were following the case it felt like it was going to be this way” (SvdEricTorrell).

DN’s commentator described it as unlikely that the case will be appealed (DNEricTorell).

On a side note: As with other court cases at this level, judgement is rendered by three lay judges (nämdemän) and one lawyer-judge (juristdomare). Even if being a lay judge is not a political position, they are sponsored for the position by a local political party. They are not required to be a member of that political party to be nominated, but if someone is interested in being a lay judge they must apply to a party to be sponsored. If accepted, they are given a course on jurisprudence, and are expected to drop their private political views when judging a case.

3 sep. – Torell trial

pic: black ribbon publicdomainvectors.org

Trial began today in a tragic case of police shooting. For those who weren’t around, 20-year old Eric Torell was shot to death by three police responding to a middle-of-the-night call about an armed gunman. Eric Torell was autistic and had Downs syndrome. He was holding a plastic shotgun, and was shot at 25 times, of which three bullets hit him.

According to the prosecution, the first shots could be considered self-defense because the plastic weapon could easily be mistaken for an actual gun. However, Eric Torell was clearly turning in or after those first seconds, and two bullets hit him in the back. Those bullets, say the prosecutor, were not self-defense. The court will have to decide if, in that brief interval, the police ought to have stopped and are therefore guilty as charged.

The officer who hit Torell in the back is charged with misconduct, and the police whose bullet was the killing shot is charged with involuntary manslaughter. The officer in charge of the response is charged with misconduct as well, in that the police response was poorly led. All three officers are pleading innocent. That shots were fired at all, or that the victim had an intellectual disability is not relevant to the case at hand. Instead, the case centers on how the police understood the situation and if their actions were motivated (bit.ly/SvDTorell1).

Whatever the outcome, there is no happy ending to this story, nothing that will change the events of that August night. Perhaps the best that can be decided is a clearer understanding of responsibilities – on the part of the police, and, on the part of the general public.