Police in Sweden make headway against gang shootings

By Johan Ahlander

After more than a decade of rising deadly gang violence, Swedish police say the country's violent crime statistics are finally improving and attribute this to new powers including increased electronic eavesdropping and more surveillance cameras.

Police said they had prevented more than 100 serious crimes this year, resulting in a marked decrease in shootings and shooting deaths.

"This is the first time we have seen the trend pointing clearly downwards over an extended period of time," Police National Operations Department head Johan Olsson told Reuters.

Sweden had by far the EU's highest rate of deadly gun violence per capita last year. With two weeks left of this year, 40 people have been shot dead in Sweden - a chilling number for a European country of only 10 million people.

That still represents a 35% decrease compared to 2022, the most lethal year of the gang wars, when 63 people were shot dead. Meanwhile, shootings have decreased by a third to 262 in 2024 from 390 in 2022, police data showed.

There were tentative signs of improvement in 2023, but the sustained decline is giving police confidence they may finally be turning the corner.

"The intent to commit crimes has not decreased, but we are getting closer to the gangs and we are better at preventing serious violent offences," Olsson said.

While increased police powers have had an effect, new tactics in gangland also play a role, he added.

Police say gangs have begun using social media platforms as "digital marketplaces" to openly recruit children, some as young as 11, to commit murders and bombings across the Nordic region.

Inexperienced teenagers, seen as expendable by the gangs, are easier for police to catch than those ordering the shootings.

Still, 72% of deadly shootings were solved in 2023, compared to just 29% in 2022, helped in part by surging camera surveillance. Police aim to employ 2,500 cameras and drones this year, a five-fold increase from five years ago.

GOVERNMENT BOOST

The improved violent crime figures are welcome news for the government, which won power in 2022 on a crime-fighting platform. Besides expanding surveillance, it has increased police stop-and-search powers and introduced anonymous witnesses and tougher sentencing.

"Without a doubt there are positive signs that indicate new resources, new tools, new ways of working are starting to bite," Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told Reuters.

"At the same time that we are perhaps two years into a 10-year journey."

However, civil rights groups have said the fast implementation and sheer volume of new police tactics and laws are a risk to civil liberties and the rule of law.

In 2023, the latest year for which records are available, Swedish courts handed down prison sentences totalling just under 200,000 months, a 25% increase from the previous year and a doubling compared to 2014.

"We want to further tighten the sentences," Strommer said.

Manne Gerell, Malmo University criminologist, said police looked to have turned the corner in reducing shootings and gun homicides but warned the crime wave was not over.

"This might be a relatively calm year compared to the last 10 years, but before that it would have been the worst year on record," he said. "It is better, but only in relation to the very bad level we have gotten used to in Sweden."