When 2023 turned into 2024, Sweden left behind an unusually bloody year, marked by the brutal violence of gang crime that affected many and affected everyone.
Since January 1, Mattias Andersson is the new regional police chief for Stockholm. He is convinced that we are heading in the right direction, after a “very stressful” year.
– We had the gang conflict with shootings in a ruthless way that I have never experienced before. After all, I have been a police officer for 32 years, but we have never seen this, says Andersson in Efter fem.
Worried outside world
Parallel to the gang war, Sweden’s EU presidency swallowed up a lot of police resources and the troubled world situation placed new demands on the Swedish police, he explains.
– We had war in Ukraine and we had conflicts in different ways in the outside world that affected us in the Stockholm region. We had scripture burnings. It was a very intense year.
In 2023, there were a total of 47 explosions and 116 shootings with 26 deaths in the Stockholm region, where gang violence became increasingly visible and tangible to ordinary Swedes.
A month into the new year, however, the situation in the capital looks different. So far, there has only been one explosion – the question is whether it will last.
– Right now it feels like we have some kind of turning point, but it’s too early to say. Things go very fast in these environments. It doesn’t take much for it to flare up, says Mattias Andersson.
The police’s new method
The explanation for the so far calm 2024 is partly the many people in custody, partly a new way of working for the police.
– It is obviously about investigating the crimes that have been committed, but in those investigations we must also look ahead. What is going to happen with this shooting or explosion? What consequences does it have going forward?
Mattias Andersson explains that, together with the prosecutors in Stockholm, they have found a new method and system that is successful.
– We have become better at putting together puzzles with our networks and seeing who is involved in what. We are getting better and better control of the intelligence situation. We can predict what might happen, he says.