Sweden and the Chief Story

For six months, I kinda follow on a weekly basis....news and events going on in Sweden.  I should note....I've never been there.  It's just that it started to make the news last summer, and I'd pick up a Swede newspaper (via Chrome translations) and go over headlines.  The immigration thing, and crime interested me.

For months, I've been trying to understand how the Swedish cops have been dragged down and seem to be totally disconnected from reality.  It would seem like the cops on the street knew what was going on, and the managers at the top did not.

Today, some story came out via Speisa....a news service out of Sweden. The chief of police for the nation (9.6 million residents).....came out this past week and introduced a new strategy.  Police investigators have been told to re-prioritize their efforts.  More time on traffic violations....less time on serious crimes.

Now, a normal guy....not even a cop....would sit there and ask some stupid questions.

What the head office of the national police has said is that this effort to focus on traffic situations will result in a higher percentage of closed cases.  On numbers, it'll look great in six months.  The serious crime numbers?  Well....yeah, they didn't say much.  They did say that murders would still get their full attention and full investigative power.

Someone from Speisa pointed out that with the new 'creative' talk suggested....if you busted some dude with 30 marijuana plants....it would end up as thirty separate cases of marijuana, and each would be easily accomplished....thus showing a terrific rate of case closure.

So I looked up the head of the Swedish national police....Dan Eliasson.  He's an interesting character.  Mid-50's, lawyer background, career government employee. Early on in his career....he was the head of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (their version of Social Security).  Later, he headed up the chiefs job at the international affairs section of the Justice Ministry.  Then he served five years as the chief of staff for the Justice Minister.  For a short period, he was the acting chief of the Swedish Security Service, then he headed up for four years the Swedish Migration Agency.  

In 2015, he was picked and chosen to be the head of the national police in Sweden.

You'd look at the guy's resume, and ask.....what police background or experience does he have?  Well....none.

My guess is that the cops kinda felt that way when he arrived, but it's the political system that delivered Dan to them, and you can't fix this.

So I come to this last piece of the resume business.  In the mid-70s....for a short period, Dan headed up a punk rock band in Sweden, and they had this big national hit in 1979....."*ucking in Bangkok".  I double-checked the translation to this,

In a way, the political system has delivered this guy to be the chief of police, who has no police background or experience.  He is a pure bureaucrat in nature.

The idea of building some fortress-like police complex in the thug neighborhood of Rinkeby?  Tens of millions will be spent on this....mostly to make it secure enough that cops feel it's safe.  Eliasson had to approve this idea and press the government to spend the money.  It makes sense now how this idea was pushed forward and accepted by the government.

The national election comes up in 2018....so maybe there is some massive change of government, and the chief of police is changed out.  Until then, you have to live with the problem created.