Confidence in police at new low

Swedish crime victims’ confidence in the police has fallen to a record low, according to a new survey on people’s attitudes towards the public services, but Justice Minister Thomas Bodström has dismissed the survey as "crackpot".

The Swedish Quality Index (SKI) interviewed people who have had close contact with public services such as the police, health service and education service.

Dentists were given high points by the survey, with private dentists scoring higher than the state-run Folktandvården service. Patients gave dentists a score of 75 on a scale of 1-100.

Victims of theft and violent crime gave the police a score of 49.4. This was the second year in a row that confidence in the police has dropped. Crime victims have lower expectations of the police than users of any of the other public services, the report says.

“This is extremely serious and indicates that their service simply isn’t working,” said Jan Eklöf at the Stockholm School of Economics.Increased dissatisfaction with the police is due to the fact that too few crimes are solved, Eklöf argues.

But Justice Minister Thomas Bodström slated the report, saying it was comparing apples and pears.“This is a crackpot survey. You can’t compare pulling out a tooth to investigating a crime,” he said.

The police have always done badly in SKI’s annual reports – they have had the bottom placing since the mid-nineties – although this year’s score of under fifty percent is a new low. “I am the first to admit that the police should be better, but I don’t set much store by comparisons such as this,” Bodström said to TT. He pointed to a series of surveys by the SOM Institute at Gothenburg University, which often show high levels of public confidence in the police.

But Stefan Strömberg, the National Police Commissioner, said he too the report’s results seriously.“It is regrettable that we don’t get better scores,” he said.“This is something that we are working on, and we hope to get better results in the future.

”Strömberg said the police’s capabilities for solving ‘everyday crimes’ were improving rapidly, and efforts in crime prevention would also have an effect.


It should come as no surprise to anyone, that peoples' confidence in the Swedish police is not very high, when 26/27 rapes in Stockholm remain unsolved, and violent crime and rapes are increasing rapidly in Sweden as a whole. The Swedish police force has become increasingly unmotivated to fight crime, and are faced with ever-growing crime rates and they are becoming targets themselves, when a police station in Södertälje was fired at with automatic gunfire. After this incident, Swedish police, not the Muslim youths, were blamed for being insensitive, and for not having enough police with immigrant background. The problems in Södertälje have continued since the riot and the shootings (my translation):

"The police increase security measures around the family in Södertälje whose car was set on fire on saturday. The fire is linked to the daughter's report of sexual harrasment, which resulted in riots in the district of Ronna some weeks ago.."

And yet, according to Anders Lago, Chairman of the local municipal governing body, says that the Syrians of Södertälje are among the 'well integrated' groups.

In other news, Swedish politicians have done the unthinkable, again. The 'best' bits (again, my translation):

"With 150 votes for and 39 against, the Swedish parliament voted yes for the nee temporary asylum law, which is intended to give the illegal refugees in Sweden a new chance to stay in Sweden legally."

I cannot see the logic in giving those who break the law a second chance, while sending away those who were stupid enough not to break the law and go into hiding. Indeed, they should have known that the law rarely applies to them in the same context, as it does to others.

"Rojas warned, that the refugee agreement can further increase alienation, which in turn could lead to a similar situation in Paris. This lead the Left Party's Kalle Larsson to say, that he was not so sure anymore whether the Swedish parliament is free of anti-foreigner parties or not."

Typical, that is all I can say. Trying to suggest that there could possibly be problems with ethnic tension is obviously a very racist thing to say. Culture/Ethnicity/Skin colour does not matter. Yet, Swedish police have too few of immigrant background working among them.

If rioting was to break out in Sweden, similar to that going on for the second week in France, then it is reassuring to know, that Prime Minister Persson knows how to deal with them:

Swedish PM slams French government over riots

Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson has criticised the way the French government has handled the unrest in the country.

"They have chosen a confrontational route and it is hard to see how it will become a dialogue," he said. Persson reserved his strongest criticism for France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, who described the rioters as racaille, or 'rabble'.

"I'm surprised by the choice of words, at the start and as things went on. There is an implacability in the attitude towards the situation and I don't think it will lead to a dialogue," said Persson.

"There is justifiable criticism of French society and you don't confront this with the sort of expression Sarkozy used," he continued to a group of journalists in Stockholm on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister said that he was not willing to review the French government's method of handling the unrest, but at the same time criticised the decision to send in a powerful police presence and to introduce a state of emergency:"It's clear that if you resort to emergency legislation then it's naturally very dramatic, the like of which I haven't seen in Europe in the last 30-40 years. It feels like a very hard and confrontational approach.

"Persson said he sees what is happening in France as a warning to the rest of Europe of the tensions that are built up as a consequence of poor integration policies and lingering unemployment since the slump of the 1990s.

"It does not mean that the rest of us should think we don't have a problem, that would be far too arrogant," he said.

"But obviously a simple thing like the fact that young people in France do not have the option of a study loan means that a great many are shut out from what, today, is necessary for moving on in society, namely further education."However, he said that the Liberal Party's warning that the same thing could also happen in Sweden was "unnecessary".

"Rather than being in any way self-righteous, we should be vigilant, so such warnings are not needed. The vast majority recognise that this is a serious situation," he said.

Persson also rejected the idea of more local police as a "first step" in Sweden.

"It could be a method that works, but I don't believe that's the way we would choose in Sweden. For us it is about working on the opportunities for education. To start sending out signals about strengthening the police is to break with the political line we have chosen to follow," he said.

Here is an article on the issue in English:

Asylum "amnesty" passes

Sweden's parliament on Wednesday voted to give asylum seekers whose application has been rejected a second chance to obtain a residence permit.

The law, which is valid until March 31, 2006, concerns rejected asylum seekers whose deportation order was not carried out due to conditions in their home countries, as well as families with children who went into hiding in Sweden after having their applications were refused.

The Swedish immigration authority, Migrationsverket, said an estimated 20,000 people will now be entitled to file new applications, which is currently not allowed under Swedish law.

The government said the move would not guarantee all immigrants a legal status automatically, but opposition politicians and immigration officials said it amounted to a mass amnesty for those in hiding or awaiting deportation.

"It is a big problem that a growing number of people are living outside society," Barbro Holmberg, minister for immigration, told parliament before the new law, which is to be a temporary measure, was adopted.

"We are now breaking a deadlock and a vacuum in which our society and many people have landed in," she said.

mmigration officials quoted in Swedish media said they had orders to each process an average of 3.5 asylum requests per day, or one every two hours, with the aim of clearing the application backlog by the end of March.

Currently a decision on each application can take several months."Even our bosses say this is an amnesty law but we're not allowed to call it that," one official told Dagens Nyheter.

Another said that cursory checks on criminal records would still be possible, "but we can't conduct any investigation".Holmberg would not be drawn on how great the chances of success were for asylum seekers taking advantage of the new rules, and advised illegal immigrants to remain in hiding until the law comes into force next week.

But she said it was important that rejected applicants be deported swiftly "so our asylum system retains its credibility".

Politicians from the centre-right opposition claimed the law would make it easier for criminals to gain residency, and could even draw illegal immigrants from other European countries to Sweden in the hope of gaining a visa.

AFP

Sweden, wake up.