“More arrests when the guards do the police’s job,”
“In the short time, the number of arrests carried out by security guards and stewards doubled. One explanation may be that they perform more assignments in public places. The trade association security companies believe that their members face an increased crime among young people.”
“It often begins with a ordningsstörning, an incident which in itself need not be particularly serious, but that the stewards have the task to prevent and suppress.”
“– We ask the person to remove themselves and if they don’t do it voluntarily so should we evict them from the site. In connection with it, we make a skyddsvisitation and can we find a knife so it becomes a crime, says Eric, 31 years old, who has worked as a security guard in Stockholm since 2012.”
“Neither he or his colleague, Mikaela, 30 years, want their surname published for security reasons. They feel that the climate in their work environment has become tougher.”
“It creeps down in old age, and there are more knives, both in the suburbs and in the city,” says Mikaela.”
“more than 10 000 arrests”
“Between the years 2017 and 2018, more than doubled the number of arrests that were carried out by stewards and security guards, from 4-985-10 of 760, according to the statistics on incident reports compiled by the trade association security companies.”
“– It is more up the city in public places, more narkotikahantering, gangs who are fighting and may be perceived as precarious. They affect the public sphere and public spaces, ” says Li Jansson, branch manager at security companies.”
“– Then there is a trend where the butiksstölderna has become more serious and more systematic. It is significant crimes than it has been in the past. This, we believe is also a part of the explanation, she continues.”
“But it is hardly possible to claim that the crime rate among young people has doubled. According to the national Crime prevention council (Brå) statistics on reported crimes, in 2018, the number of thefts and tillgripanden on the contrary decreased. Violent crime, drug offences and other crime is at a virtually unchanged level.”
“Corresponds to no trend”
“Crime is also conducting a survey among students to measure their exposure to and involvement in the crime. The latest is from 2017 and in the see no trend towards a sharp increase in crime.”
“Eric and Mikaela artbetar for the company Nokas, which has been commissioned by the city of Stockholm to maintain order in some 30 areas in the city. Eric believes that the increased number of arrests has to do with the fact that he and his colleagues are increasingly working with to patrol in the streets and squares. Missions of this type are relatively new to the security industry and among clients are several large municipalities.”
“– We are moving more in public places and meet more people, perhaps we would not meet otherwise, ” he says.”
“Statistics from the Agency show that the number of municipal contracts of the services of security companies has increased significantly over the last five years.”
” more and more municipalities contract security guards. Sometimes it is motivated from a municipal perspective when it comes to clinics, festivals, or similar, but we do not think that it is good that you do it to maintain order on the streets and in the squares, then overturn it over the cost from the state to the municipality, ” says Greta Berg, an expert on crime prevention issues at the Swedish association of local authorities and regions (SALAR).”
“Cost is not the only problem that she sees as the stewards take over the work of maintaining order in public places.”
“– You can ask who it is that is supposed to make arrests, a person with 14 days of training or a person with three years of training? Before there was a tunnelbanepolis, but then felt that it was not enough and hired stewards. Now, there are almost no police at all left in the tube. The question is how this will evolve in other areas.”
“the Year 2012 was 99 municipal procurement of security services. In 2017, which is the latest year in the official statistics, the number was 142.”
“the Cost of procurement of security services amounted to nearly a billion dollars.”
“the Actions at the breach or offending of the order accounted for 6.8 per cent of the events as stewards and guardians reported that, in 2018. First aid and response in case of fire accounted for 4.1 per cent of the stakes and the so-called other security enhancement measures for a total of 12.5 per cent. The majority of the reported efforts, 76.5%, were measures at the rond or alarm.”
“(Arrests and poliskontakter coincide generally in the same events then the police should be called when the stewards and guards to make an arrest.)”
“Source: security companies.”