Security chief Patrik Jarenius tells SVT that he was on his way home from Stockholm and took the train to Strängnäs. On the way home, he saw four young people at Läggesta station and witnessed them throwing objects at trains and buses.
As it was not the first time similar vandalism had happened, he took a picture of the young people, and shared the picture on Facebook with a description of what he suspected them of. In the post, he asked his 1,600 followers to share the post to find out who the youths were.
– As head of security, I feel quite a lot of frustration about the great damage at Läggesta station. It costs a lot of money and I witnessed it myself yesterday. I thought the picture could help the investigation, says Patrik Jarenius.
The pictures have been widely distributed
By Friday morning, the post had been shared 140 times and reached thousands of people. When Strängnäs municipality was alerted to the post, Jarenius was contacted and asked to delete the post as it is not in accordance with the municipality’s policy to share images of minors and single them out as suspected criminals.
– I was alerted by our communications manager that this deviated from their policy and it is something I have to bear the blame for, says Patrik Jarenius.
You invited people to contact you with information about the young people. Do you conduct your own investigations?
– No, we have no legal right to investigate, the police do that. However, we can contribute with information and we can compile it and hand it over to the police, he says.
More posts violate the rules
The communications manager has also gone through Patrik Jarenius’ Facebook page and found more posts that stand out.
– It will be more clearly adjusted based on the municipality’s policy and guidelines, says chancellor Jennie Engström.
In order to eliminate the problem of stone throwing at trains and vandalism at the station, the municipality, the police and Transdev, which runs Mälartåg, will hold a meeting about it on Friday.
In the clip above, Jennie Engström, head of office at Strängnäs municipality, explains why the post was not okay.