Published: Less than 10 min ago
The phone queues for 114 14 are several hours long – if you get there at all.
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– There is a feeling of abandonment when the police don’t even answer the phone, says Manne Gerell, criminologist and researcher at Malmö University.
The queue chaos on 114 14 means that in many cases it is almost impossible for people to come forward and be able to report a crime.
– The police have failed to prevent gang violence. That is of course great – but it is also a difficult and complicated problem. Ensuring that there are enough people to answer the phone at the police contact center should not be a particularly difficult problem to solve. I think it is very bad that you have failed with that, although it is perhaps worse that you have failed with gang violence, says Manne Gerell.
– It is a disaster, precisely because it is something that can have several negative consequences but should not be difficult. They should have just fixed it. Plan for it, solve it. It is too easy and too important a problem to afford to fail, says Gerell.
How serious is it that you can’t get through to the police?
– It is a big problem. Partly because those who do not receive help may feel less trust in the police and not perceive the police as effective. There will be a feeling of abandonment. The community, the police who are supposed to protect me, who are supposed to help me, who are supposed to do something about this problem, they don’t even answer the phone.
– But it is also negative in that we get less knowledge about crime. It may happen that there are many people who have been victims of crime who have intended to report it but have given up. Then we get the wrong picture of how crime has developed because of this.
The police say that they will recruit more people and that it will be better in the spring. Do you think it will be like that? Will these problems be fixed?
– I’m sure it will get better, but failure is already a fact and this should have been planned for and resolved in advance, says Manne Gerell.
Jerzy Sarnecki, professor emeritus of criminology at Stockholm University, says that the public’s opportunities to get in touch with the police must be improved.
– You need to invest more money and people in the contact function. The police needs
information from the public and it shouldn’t be that complicated. If you want to be effective, you have to be able to answer when people call, he says.
Former chief prosecutor Sven-Erik Alhem says that the police is an authority that deserves a lot of praise – but that also leaves a lot to be desired.
– The clearance rate must be improved. Far too few murders are solved. Then you have to encourage those who call in and make them feel that they are making a difference.
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