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Young people who are cared for in, for example, Sis homes should be given an electronic foot shackle, says police chief Max Åkerwall. It could help to stop the ongoing wave of violence.
– A very large number of both the victims and the perpetrators are separated from various forms of accommodation, he says.
Three people have been killed and several have been injured when, two days in a row, shootings took place inside people’s homes in the Stockholm area.
Max Åkerwall, acting head of the police area in the Stockholm region, says that it is clear that the boundaries have been pushed further in the already ongoing wave of violence. In the last five days, the police have stopped around five to six attacks in the region.
– They sit with petrol cans in vehicles, they have plastic gloves, protective clothing and ignition devices. And we see that they are on their way to addresses that are interesting to us from an intelligence point of view. That’s how close it is, he says.
“Boys stand in line”
Often it is young boys from other regions of Sweden who have come to Stockholm to carry out what Max Åkerwall calls “murder commands”.
– Young boys are queuing up to commit this type of crime. It is the filling from below that is so incredibly challenging for us.
In order to turn the situation around, the whole society needs to mobilize, he believes.
– When we detain these young boys and they are transported to a facility, it is often the case that there are no legal grounds for keeping them locked up there.
Max Åkerwall compares it to the police leaving the young perpetrators on the stairs, after which they wander through the property completely sonic, step out through the balcony door and disappear.
Want to see foot shackles
However, if the police had been able to track the escapees, it would have made things much easier, the police chief believes.
– If there are various forms of coercive decisions on the part of Social Services combined with being in an institution like this, then we might have to consider in the short term whether it should not be combined with an electronic foot shackle or the like, he says.
– We spend a lot of time and resources on picking up the same people time and time again, where they run the risk of being a perpetrator one day and a crime victim the next.
TT: How much of a difference do you think it would make in the ongoing wave of violence now?
– It would at least limit the possibilities for these people to move freely in society, to take part in plans for the next crime, to move to a particular address and be equipped with weapons and other attributes to then go and carry out a murder plan, says Max Åkerwall.
– I think it would actually make it easier for us to be able to create better control over the current situation.
FACT Community care
So-called community care means that society intervenes and takes over responsibility for a young person due to, for example, problems at home, abuse or crime.
Care can be divided into two categories – institutional care and family homes.
Family homes are individual homes that take in children who for various reasons cannot live with their parents, for example domestic abuse, violence, abuse or crime.
The placements can take place for a shorter or longer time. The starting point is, as a rule, that the child should be reunited with his parents as soon as possible, but in some cases the child stays behind throughout his upbringing.
The latter category includes HVB homes and Sis homes.
HVB home (home for care or accommodation) is an institution within the social services that receives young people for care or treatment. Many HVB homes are privately run.
Sis-homes are youth homes run by the state authority The State Board of Institutions, where individually adapted compulsory care and closed youth care are provided.
The majority of the inmates at the homes are children and young people who have been taken into care according to the LVU (the Act on the care of young people) for, for example, substance abuse. A smaller percentage are taken into care under the LSU (Act on Closed Youth Care) after being convicted of a crime.
Even adult addicts can receive care at special LVM homes under the auspices of Sis according to the law on care for addicts.
Sources: The National Board of Institutions, Sweden’s Municipalities and Regions, the National Board of Health and Welfare
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