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Operation Rimfrost had no significant effect, according to the report “How can police address gang shootings?” which is published by Linköping University on Monday.
The police, the police investigator and Professor Stefan Holgersson have reviewed how the police commented in the media about Operation Rimfrost and compared it to crime statistics. It concludes that the curves for the number of arrests, drug transfer offenses and weapons offenses in Malmö do not show significant changes and concludes that the police exaggerate the effects of Operation Rimfrost.
According to Holgersson, it is no accident that the police officially paint a picture that is not correct.
– An important point of the report is to point out the image that the police have of their work, which does not correspond to the way in which police work is carried out, says Stefan Holgersson.
At first, the police may Through his reporting, he increases trust in the police and perceived safety, he says, but in the long run, citizens will see how it goes and wonder what the police are doing and why the business is not developing in the desirable way. .
Stefan Holgersson believes that there have been warning signs for a long time regarding gang crimes, how the war has developed in the drug market, the radicalization of violence, but that the police leadership has not done anything about it. .
– In a soccer team, you would think it is time to change the coach. But in the police it is not like that, where the management just moves, they are basically the same managerial injuries which means that the managerial philosophy does not change, although of course there are others, he says.
Police investigator Stefan Holgersson.
Photo: Paul Hansen
In the report, the researchers draw the conclusion that it is the hierarchical organization of the police that makes an efficient way of working impossible. In one chapter, they refer to several previous surveys that give police chiefs very low scores compared to other professional categories.
– Police leadership has been studied in several studies, for example a test of 100 police chiefs, and several variables have been developed. What sets police chiefs apart is that they are very short, says Stefan Holgersson.
This is consistent with several different surveys referenced in the survey, which classify the police organization as hierarchical.
This is the opposite of what Holgersson believes is necessary in order to be able to work problem-oriented, a learning organization that absorbs criticism and develops.
Working method problem-oriented is described in a couple of chapters of the report. It is assumed that instead of working event-oriented – and reacting when crimes have been committed – the police work with crime on projects, analyze problems and try to change the factors that create them.
– The police drive with the model “send more cars”, send police resources and try to catch as many as possible and then they tell you that you are great when you have managed to report more crimes. What we are saying is that you have to work with a more precise analysis of what the problem is, says Johannes Knutsson, emeritus professor of police investigation, who wrote that part of the report.
Johannes Knutsson.
Photo: Private
In such a problem-oriented project, Tested in Boston, the police used the targeted deterrence method, which in this case was effective against gang crime. They have also tried it in the UK, in Manchester, but it didn’t work there, according to Johannes Knutsson. There was no impact on the active mechanism, targeted deterrence, but it worked with ordinary social worker methods.
– The mechanism is that you explain to the gangs that “if you don’t stop, this will happen”, and it is collective – if you commit an act of violence, the whole gang will be affected. This is indicated in collections. Not only police officers are involved in the project, but also prosecutors, prison and probation staff, and special social workers who focus on gangs. The method is also called “Damocles model”: you place a sword around their necks and explain that “you are the one holding the rope.”
At the same time that it threatens harsh punishments offer an outlet for crime, education, or work. The hope is that gang members, who are usually young, will choose the latter.
It remains to be seen whether targeted deterrence could be used against gang shootings in Sweden, according to the researchers. On the one hand, problem-oriented projects require extensive analytical work, and on the other hand, the threat from society to gangs must be credible. In Sweden, young perpetrators are usually not judged as harshly.
This is what the authors of the report say at the end of the survey:
“However, we want to emphasize that the police alone cannot solve the problem. Among other things, it is about the fact that our legal system has shown an inability to deal with young repeat offenders. There are also many other factors that play a role in largely in the conditions to solve the problem and that are outside the subject of the report.
Read more:
Despite police efforts, Swedish gang violence continues to claim lives
The police: there are currently about fifty gang conflicts in Sweden
Significant arms investment came to a halt due to Operation Rimfrost
