Most recently under the violence wave 2023: “Then it was the shootings that flooded over”
In January, 32 explosions occurred in Sweden, a large number of these affected southern Stockholm. The police in the area have described it as an explosive wave and reinforced with both drone surveillance and other resources.
“We have taken out a large resource with everything from police with good local knowledge, the police rhythm, dog driver and police dogs to traffic police who will be out in the areas where we see that the needs exist,” said Max Åkerwall, Deputy Police Area Manager in Stockholm Syd at the end of January .
Possibility to call for staff mode
Now, in consultation with other actors, the police have decided to activate a “location” within the framework of collaboration in the region, SSR. The purpose is stated to be to counteract the ongoing wave of violence by collaborating across organizational boundaries, both in the long term and short -term.
– You can see it as a crisis management system. In this, there is the opportunity to call for participating authorities and organizations to go up in staff mode to deal with a problem, says Marcus Marsten, head of operational unit in the Stockholm region.
Firefighters are asked to be vigilant
During the wave of violence in the autumn of 2023, the police activated the same situation.
– Then it was the shootings that flooded. We see a need to activate the situation this time given the increased number of blasts we have had in the region, says Marcus Marsten, head of operational unit in the Stockholm region.
Within the Södertörn Rescue Defense Association, which operates in southern Stockholm, employees are invited to be vigilant and react if something seems abnormal. Furthermore, the union in communication to its employees states that they see the development linked to blasts as worrying.
Educational material should also be sent out about how the firefighters should act in explosions.
Had good effects in the autumn of 2023
The joint desire to enter into an activated location was taken after a meeting between the municipal director in the City of Stockholm and the regional police chief and came into force last week.
– We discussed this issue and concluded that it had very good effects when we activated this in the last wave of violence, says Marcus Marsten.
The goal of the new active situation and collaboration is that authorities and organizations in the region should be able to work more closely together. On the part of the police, among other things, they want to reach schools, parents, leisure farms and associations, which in turn can reach young people – even directly to children via digital platforms.
– They can help describe to children and young people what happens if they get into discussions with people who want to recruit them to carry out serious violent crimes, says Marsten.
He points out that no organization manages to deal with the problem itself and that it is not just a regional problem. Criminal actors are found all over the country and abroad while moving.
– It can be a recruiter who sits in Sweden and a facilitator in another part of the country. Then a youth sits on HVB homes in another part of the country, but is written with their parents and then travels to another part of the country and commits crime, says Marsten.