Gang shootings continue to increase – but not in Gothenburg. The country’s second largest city has not had a single fatal shooting so far this year. A focus on local police and stopping the gangs’ key figures may have been decisive, according to the police. About ten years ago, Gothenburg was hit by quite a few gang-related shootings. – Since then, there has been a positive trend, says Manne Gerell, docent at Malmö University, who researches gang violence and the geography of crime. – They seem to have been a little better at solving the gang murders in Gothenburg than they were in Stockholm and Malmö, says Gerell. So far this year, the West region has only been affected by nine shootings, which can be compared with 33 in Stockholm, and 19 in the South region, which includes Malmö. No person has been shot dead in Gothenburg. – One thing that was mentioned is that the police in Gothenburg had a slightly different organization, and also focused more on finding the right people, says Gerell. – But they may have been lucky. Or are just skilled, he adds. The foundation of the local police The police in Gothenburg were early in investing in local police, with good knowledge of their areas. It was started in 2012, after being in contact with the Crime Prevention Council. In 2015, the rest of the country followed, in connection with the Swedish police being reorganized to be a nationwide authority, instead of 21 county police. The local police’s knowledge is used in many ways. In the work of anticipating and preventing crime, in the early investigative work when something has happened, and also later in criminal investigations. Emelie Kullmyr, police chief in Greater Gothenburg, believes that the local police are the foundation of the work done to stop shootings and other gang violence. – We have to create relationships and trust with people. At the same time, we have to set boundaries, because we are the police, says Emelie Kullmyr. Targeting leading criminal figures is another important part of the work. – We should not always go after huge seizures and very long prison sentences, but after the individual who sets things in motion. It has to go away, even if it’s only for three months, says Emelie Kullmyr, and speaks well of the collaboration with, for example, the Ecocrime Authority. Guess who it was The police in Gothenburg have had a lot of help from reading various messaging services, where criminals thought they could communicate undisturbed. Partly those where the encryption has been cracked by some country’s police, such as Encrochat, and partly Anom, which the FBI launched to deceive criminals. But the local police were also important in that context. – The work done by area police out in the field led to us being able to understand who was talking in these chats, says Joakim Simonsson, operational coordinator for the local police in southern Greater Gothenburg. Simonsson started as a police officer in 1999, and became group leader in Tynnered’s area police in 2010. His view is that the police work significantly more efficiently today than around 20 years ago. Above all, the cooperation, and the exchange of information, between different units within the police has become much better. – There is a huge difference, says Joakim Simonsson.
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