Sweden and Finland to up cooperation to fight crime in Sweden
Sweden and Finland have pledged to step up cooperation to fight organised crime in Sweden and its spill-over effects, including allowing police to cross borders, the two countries’ governments said at a meeting in Sweden on Monday.
On the occasion of the Finnish government’s visit to Sweden, led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Sweden and Finland proposed taking a further step in the fight against Swedish organised crime, which is spreading into neighbouring Finland.
Sweden and Finland want to deepen their police cooperation to the extent that police can work on the other side of the border in serious cases, announced Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer.
“With joint muscles, we will be able to intervene much more resolutely on both sides of the border than before”, Strömmer added.
Sweden’s government will present the new bill on police cooperation to parliament on Tuesday.
“In the border areas, Sweden and Finland will be able to work very integrated into our police authorities and also work in each other’s countries to prevent really serious crimes like murder, kidnapping or robbery”, Strömmer told Swedish broadcaster TV4 Nyheter.
“We should be able to follow criminals in car chases on the other side of the border and also be able to reinforce each other on both sides in a different way than we can today”, he added.
The aim is for the cooperation to be fully operational from early next year when the law is expected to be approved in both national parliaments.
“There may be something going on in northern Sweden, or there may not be police officers in that particular area on the Swedish side. But if there are Finnish police officers closer, they will be able to prevent crime and stop the worst from happening”, said Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Lulu Ranne.
This police cooperation, one of the areas of cooperation discussed by Swedish Prime Ministers Ulf Kristersson (Moderate, EPP) and Petteri Orpo (Kok, EPP), was praised by the host prime minister as a true “team effort”, as he also discussed NATO cooperation and children’s health with his counterpart.
The fear of Swedish gangs
After Denmark and Norway, Swedish gangs have also expanded to Finland, where their particularly violent methods are worrying authorities, with the Finnish government hoping new police cooperation will stop the gangs.
“It will help. It is important for Finland that we can prevent the development that has taken place in Sweden,” said Ranne.
“Of course, we are worried, but the cooperation with Sweden and the Swedish and Finnish security police works well on many levels. We also have cooperation with customs and the rescue services. It works well, but it must work better,” she added.
In August, Denmark announced that it would introduce border controls with Sweden, following a resurgence of Swedish gang violence that has spilt over into Denmark in recent weeks and after Swedes were arrested on suspicion of several violent crimes in Denmark.
In response, a Nordic hub of police officers from Finland, Norway, and Denmark will be set up in Stockholm. Norwegian and Finnish officers are already involved, and Danish officers will join in a few weeks.
Sweden, with a population of just 10 million, has the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU, with 55 fatal shootings in 363 incidents last year – far more than the combined total of six fatal shootings in the other three Nordic countries.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
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