About a hundred speed cameras have been stolen in Sweden in recent months, but nothing similar has been detected in Finland. According to Aftonbladet, the stolen cameras may be connected to home-made Russian drones.
Stolen speed cameras in Sweden and their possible connection to Russian drones surfaced this week as news (you switch to another service).
About a hundred cameras have been taken in recent months, reports Aftonbladet. Swedish television (you switch to another service) according to that, up to 200 cameras would have been broken after the summer.
According to Aftonbladet, the Russians are using the same cameras in home-made drones in the war in Ukraine.
Docent interviewed by SVT Hans Liwang The Norwegian National Defense Academy estimates that the stolen cameras may have at least an indirect connection with Russian drones. The cameras could end up in this use through international crime leagues, Liwång estimates.
Police Inspector of the Police Board Heikki Ihalainen to my ears, it seems “really strange” that so many cameras could be stolen in Sweden. No cameras have been stolen in Finland.
– Sometimes a camera has been taken for maybe more than ten years, Ihalainen says.
Three differences between Finland and Sweden can explain why there have been so many thefts in the western neighbor, but there is no similar phenomenon in Finland.
1. Responsibility for supervision
In Finland, automatic surveillance is handled by the police, in Sweden the matter falls to the Swedish Transport Agency.
In Finland, the police handle both automatic monitoring and the sending of penalty payments. In Sweden, the sanctions belong to the police, but the traffic agency is responsible for the supervision itself.
– Here the clear difference may be that they haven’t been able to equip their own camera equipment well enough with alarms or something else, Ihalainen estimates.
2. Number of cameras
In Finland, not every pole has a camera.
In Sweden, stealing a speed camera is made easier by the fact that every speed post has a camera. In Finland, there are cameras randomly in different places. Stealing is more difficult if you don’t know in advance whether the pole has a camera or not.
3. Security level
Both countries use the same basic equipment, but improvements have been made to it in Finland.
In Finland, speed cameras have alarm devices. The alarm goes directly to the police command center, so the police patrol could be brought to the scene quickly. Alarms have been used since 1996.
The structure of the control post has also been improved in Finland. They have such a level of protection that even if the post is shot, the equipment would not immediately fall apart.