According to Sweden's crime statistics agency Brå, the number of crimes reported in Malmö dropped more than 10 percent in 2018 to 53,192, a level last seen in 2001, when there were 75,000 fewer people living in the city.
“We have been pushing on with our reorganization and had the opportunity to work more on crime prevention,” Andy Roberts, police chief for northern Malmö, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.
But he said he would prefer not to give further comment until he was sure that the impressive looking preliminary statistics were accurate. “We need to sit down and analyze all this to make sure that there isn't something wrong with the statistics,” he said.
According to Brå's annual statistics, the number of attempted murders reported in Malmö dropped by nearly half, from 100 in 2017 to 55 in 2018, the lowest number since 2013.
The number of reported robberies also dropped significantly, falling by nearly 14 percent to 20,468 compared to last year, and by 40 percent compared to 1998.
The only real bad news in the statistics was in the number of reported rapes, which increased by 10 percent to 230, the highest number since 1996, the earliest year in Brå's database.
Gothenburg, Sweden's second city, also saw the number of crimes reported drop, with six percent fewer this year than last year, bringing crime in the city to its lowest level since 1999.
Stockholm, Sweden's capital, saw the number of reported crimes go in the other direction, however, up nearly four percent to 207,781.
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