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CRIME

Swedes increasingly concerned about crime: survey

Swedes are increasingly worried about crime, and women are more concerned about it than men, according to new figures from the country's National Council on Crime Prevention (Brå).

Published: 16 January 2018 14:23 CET
Swedes increasingly concerned about crime: survey
Swedes are increasingly concerned about crime. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Numbers released by Brå from the forthcoming 2017 edition of the National Crime Survey (NTU) suggest that almost a third of the population (29 percent) are to a large extent worried about crime in Swedish society, an increase compared to 2016 (25 percent) and a return to the same level as the first time the matter was measured in 2006. The level had decreased between 2006 and 2011 before the trend changed.

At the same time confidence in the Swedish legal system has declined, with 55 percent of the population now saying they have high confidence in it, down six percent from 2016. As has confidence in the police (54 percent, down from 61 percent in 2016) and confidence in prosecutors (44 percent, down from 50 percent in 2016).

According to Brå's deputy unit head, public discourse on those matters as well as media reporting are reasonable explanations for the changes.

“Though the study doesn't provide explanations and is rather designed to follow developments of the level of concern about crime, we can still see the changes against the background of other figures showing there is an increased exposure to different crimes. There has also now for a quite long period in Sweden been a debate over safety and crimes in different forms, and discussions about the police capacity to deal with cases. That can have an impact,” Brå's Åsa Strid told The Local.

READ ALSO: Growing number of Swedes are victims of crime

The figures show a gender discrepancy in the level of concern, with women generally more worried than men. More women (23 percent) than men (17 percent) are concerned about break-ins for example (the crime Swedes are most concerned about), and the difference is even greater when it comes to concerns about violence, with 23 percent of women worried about being assaulted compared to nine percent of men.

Brå also measured concerns citizens have about going out late at night in their neighbourhood, and the difference between genders continued: 30 percent of women said they felt very or quite unsafe doing so, or so unsafe that they would choose not to go out, compared to only nine percent of men.

“We've seen that difference since we started doing the studies, that women are more insecure and worried about crime,” Strid noted.

Brå's 2017 National Crime Survey took in the opinions of 11,600 people in Sweden. The full results will be published on January 29th.

Another survey by Brå in November found that 1.2 percent of respondents had been victims of house break-ins and 2.7 percent said they had been victims of assault.

READ ALSO: Swedish police improve rape processing rate, but violent crime slips

POLICE

Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

A new report in Dagens Nyheter has revealed over 514 suspected leaks of sensitive information from at least 30 members of the police force to criminals since 2018. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 30 April 2024 12:28 CEST
Updated: 30 April 2024 15:45 CEST
Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

What’s happened?

According to an investigative report by newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN), multiple gang members have infiltrated the police force by, for example, dating police employees, or using family connections to gain access to sensitive information about ongoing cases.

The first article in DN’s series focuses on a woman the newspaper calls Elin, who met a man, Jonas (not his real name), on a dating app when she had one year left of her police education. She falls in love, but his only goal with the relationship is to get a source within the police force which he can use for access to secret information.

Over the course of four years until she was caught, she made multiple illegal searches in the police register for Jonas, his associates and enemies, as well as providing him with information on ongoing investigations against him.

Other cases investigated by the newspaper include a border guard who sold classified information to gangs, a police officer who leaked information to what DN describes as “one of Sweden’s most notorious criminals” and an investigator who was dating a man she was investigating, who she shared screenshots of sensitive information with.

In another case, the police received a tip-off that information was being leaked to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. It was discovered that a group of five alarm operators had made an unusually high number of searches for members of the Hells Angels, who were later discovered to have connections with the gang that they had lied about during their background checks.

What have the consequences of these leaks been?

In some cases, the leaks preceded revenge attacks on enemies of the gang member involved in the relationship. In other cases, the gang members’ enemies disappeared or were murdered.

Some of the people from the police force involved in the leaks were sentenced to fines for illegal data access or breaches of professional secrecy, while the evidence against others was not sufficient to prosecute. 

At least 30 employees had for different reasons been considered “security risks” and either resigned or were forced to quit, the newspaper reported, with over 514 suspected leaks taking place from police to criminals since 2018.

How do criminals find police officers?

According to DN, they look for things that can be used as blackmail, like police officers who buy drugs, or set “honey traps”, like the one used against Elin, where they meet police officers or students on dating apps and start a relationship.

“You take Tinder, for example, and set your search radius so the police school is in the centre. When you get a match, it’s easy to check if it’s a student, through class lists or how they present themselves on social media. They’re proud of their line of work,” Jonas told DN.

They might also use their family connections to put pressure on relatives who work in the police force.

Why is this important?

It’s important because Sweden has seen a rise in gang-related violence in recent years, with a surge in shootings and bombings as gangs fight for control over different drug markets.

Swedes also have a high level of trust in the police force – 72 percent according to a 2024 study by Medieakademin, topping the list of state authorities, with a higher level of trust than universities, healthcare, the courts and even the Swedish church. This was five percent higher than in 2023.

Although the vast majority of police officers do not leak information to criminal networks, Sweden does not have a history of organised crime infiltrating the police force, so officials are keeping a close eye on these leaks to make sure they don’t become more common.

On April 29th, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told TT newswire that the leaks were “very serious”, potentially putting trust in the police force at risk.

“There are many great risks and one is that trust in police declines, that people get the idea that mafia-like methods are used to infiltrate law enforcement,” he said, before adding that he was unable to say whether it constituted a threat to national security or not purely based on the initial DN article.

“But the mere suspicion of these types of connections are damaging,” he told the newswire.

What happens now?

Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer told DN that he planned to call a meeting with police leadership about the reports, which he described as “extremely serious”.

“[At that meeting] we will consider the need for further measures,” he said.

“Leaking sensitive information to criminals is against the law and can have very damaging consequences for the work of the police force,” Strömmer told DN, adding that it could undermine trust in the police and “damage democracy”.

Last summer, the government increased the penalty for breaching professional secrecy, and a special investigator was tasked with looking at a potential reform of the rules on corruption and professional misconduct in February – the Crime Prevention Council is also involved in that investigation, where it has been asked to provide information on how gangs use government employees.

“Protecting the integrity of the justice system against infiltration and other security threats is a central part of the new national strategy against organised crime that the government decided on earlier this year, and it is given the highest priority in our assignments to the authorities,” Strömmer told the newspaper.

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