Visitation zones and anonymous witnesses are two of the criminal policy proposals agreed by the government and the Sweden Democrats in the Tidö Agreement to combat organized crime in Sweden.
After the two partners announced on Tuesday that investigations should now be started to develop proposals on how they should be carried out, the chair of the Social Democrats, Magdalena Andersson, now directs sharp criticism.
– Anonymous witnesses is an investigation that we have previously appointed and it concluded that it was not an effective tool to reduce crime, says the former prime minister to SVT Nyheter.
“Can be counterproductive”
Magdalena Andersson says that the Social Democrats will, for the time being, rely on the investigation carried out regarding their position.
– Anonymous witnesses are assigned such a low probative value that it can even be counterproductive. So it is for purely practical reasons that we have not proceeded with such a proposal, she says further.
– Then we will see if the new investigation comes up with new arguments about this.
Magdalena Andersson is also critical of the proposal for visitation zones, which would give the police the right to carry out visits to residents during time-limited periods.
– It is clear that it would not work as a confidence-builder between the police and those who live in a crime-prone area, and they want more people to testify. But if the police need better tools to search people, they should have them all over Sweden, otherwise the risk is that drug sales will only move from high-rise areas to terraced areas.