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The authors Lisa Bjurwald and former police officer Kerstin Dejemyr have interviewed several police officers who tell how sexual abuse and harassment occurs.
They believe that there is a culture based on keeping silent and not challenging the current hierarchy within authority. Vulnerable people who sound the alarm testify to how, for example, their colleagues can block them or transfer them to other services.
– This is the spirit of union in your destructive testing, says author Lisa Bjurwald.
“It almost always happens openly”
The book “The Perpetrator is a Police Officer” is based on hundreds of stories during the police’s own # emergency defense appeal.
According to Lisa Bjurwald, a recurring story is about a young police officer who goes to a work party and a boss or senior colleague walks up and pushes her against a bar counter, squeezes her breasts and tells her to go to the bathroom and do him a sexual favor.
She says there are several common threads in the stories, the first of which is that it is very common.
– The second is how blatantly it happens. It almost always happens openly, in the cafeteria, at Christmas parties. It is not something you are ashamed of on the part of men, but something you are right about. The third common thread is that there are witnesses who do nothing. And it is not strange, it is a fear that is connected to the culture of silence.
Thornberg: freshness rating in which issues are addressed
National Police Chief Anders Thornberg says he is aware of the problem.
– There is no place for rapes within the Swedish police. I get sad and angry when things like this happen. A single case is too much, but that it is daily is not the perception I have.
Recently, a new metoo appeal was started within the police, which Anders Thornberg is grateful for. The authority must work with the problems all the time, he says.
– We have made a projection of culture. We have specially hired specialists in our human resources department who are experts in equal treatment, gender studies, and critique of norms.
