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CRIME

Swedish police reveal latest move to crack down on gang crime

Swedish police are assigning a special detail after a recent spate of shootings and explosions, which saw a 15-year-old boy shot dead in Malmö two days ago.

Published: 11 November 2019 07:30 CET
Swedish police reveal latest move to crack down on gang crime
Police investigating after a shooting in Malmö on Saturday. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Mats Löfving, head of the police's national operations department Noa, on Sunday ordered police to treat the wave of violent crime in recent weeks as a so-called “special national incident”.

This means creating a temporary task force that is given increased powers, access to resources and focuses only on the incident. Löfving appointed Stefan Hector, who led the police units that worked during the terror attack on Drottninggatan in Stockholm in 2017, to command the detail.

The focus is on “serious organized crime that culminates in homicides with shootings and the use of explosives”, said Noa in a statement. More was to be revealed at a press conference on Monday.

The decision comes after a 15-year-old boy was shot dead in Malmö's Möllevångtorget square on Saturday evening, one of the busiest times of the week for the area's many bars and restaurants.

But it also follows an unprecedented increase in the use of explosives in Sweden, which has seen the national bomb squad called out to around 100 blasts this year – more than double of last year.

There have been no deaths linked to these blasts, which have varied in size with some the equivalent of large fireworks and others ripping apart the facade of apartment buildings.

But police have said “it's pure luck” that there have not been more serious injuries.

Sweden's crime rate remains one of the lowest in the world. Despite a rise in murders linked to gangs since the 1990s, there has been a reduction in murders linked to domestic violence, hate crime and 'spontaneous fights', meaning the overall homicide rate is lower today than in the early 1990s.

But rise in criminal gangs willing to resort to fatal violence is still a cause for concern both at home and abroad. Earlier this year Denmark reintroduced border checks with Sweden after two bombings in Copenhagen which were linked to a Swedish gang conflict.

Law and order, including crime reports, accounted for 35 percent of TV news coverage between August and September this year and the subject often dominates political debate, including ahead of last year's general election.

Vocabulary

special incident – (en) särskild händelse

crime – (ett) brott

violence – våld

police – polis

shooting – (en) skjutning/skottlossning

We're aiming to help our readers improve their understanding of the Swedish-language news by translating vocabulary from some of our articles. If you have any feedback, please let us know.

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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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