A suspected woman has been to the toilet but resist when she returns into the cell. She is strong. Both guards go to the floor. One gets pulled in the hair and overturned with the face before. It loosens a lot of hair after the event, her face is tender and she has suffered a dental injury. She is shocked and gets sick.
This is an example of a serious incident that occurred in a police arrest a few years ago. The woman was charged with violence and threats against an official, but was released by the district court who felt that she was suffering from a serious mental disorder at the time.
Several suicide attempts in arrests
The police write like this about another incident: the suspect “suddenly becomes aggressive and removes the ventilation valve from the ceiling, breaks down a window pane and is damaged by crushed glass and gets cut damage to their hands”.
Another suspected wrap “a telephone cord around the neck and has time to turn blue in the face” before the police can intervene.
Last year, 102 arrested tried to kill themselves in the cells, even though the police try to take away the suspects everything that can be used for suicide.
On average, about three people a year die in the arrests.
Police for statistics on all important incidents. The incidents have tripled since 2017, according to the police’s own statistics.
The police believe that the increase, among other things, is because it is easier for a few years to report incidents.
– But we also have more abuse and more psychiatric diagnoses, so there is a lot that comes into play, says Patrik, who is responsible for developing the arrest operations in Sweden, but does not want to say his last name for security reasons.
An arrest guard says that the perpetrators are getting younger and that respect for the police is declining.
Criminologist: Healthcare personnel should be in the arrest
Criminologist Emeli Lönnqvist is researching detention. She emphasizes that those who end up in the arrest are only suspected, not convicted.
– This is not something that you can wave away, she says.
The politicians are focused on harsher punishment and more arrested, she believes, and this in turn makes prisons and arrests be filled.
– We have a judicial system that is under a lot of pressure. And it is clear that it affects how the detainees feel, she says.
She thinks that healthcare professionals should always be in the arrest.
– We should also consider whether to have compulsory medical examinations from those who come to the arrest.