During the period January to July this year, the number of reported burglaries or attempted burglaries in residential buildings and holiday homes has decreased by 36 percent since 2022. During the same period, reported boat-related thefts have decreased by 47 percent and vehicle-related thefts by 64 percent.
Linda Staaf Bydén, area manager for international criminal actors, points primarily to two measures that have helped reverse the trend.
What we have really gotten better at in the Swedish police is exchanging information across the country's borders. The gangs move very quickly, they are well organized and have planned their work. If we are not quick enough to act, they are out of the country again.
Stop faster
The exchange of information has made it possible to intervene more quickly and more often and to interrupt ongoing theft tours.
The thefts are generally committed by international theft gangs, mainly from other EU countries, but also from South America and some Russian speakers. In recent years, more and more have been stopped from entering Sweden.
We use immigration legislation in an offensive way to prevent potential perpetrators from even being able to stay in the country and commit these crimes.
In 2025, over 400 rejections or deportations were carried out and so far this year, 240 have been rejected.
We are increasingly focusing our police work on preventing crimes from even happening. With every person like this we deport from the country, there are large numbers of criminal reports that don't even need to arise in the first place.
Criminals advised against
The fact that the measures are working is not only evident in the statistics. In chats between criminals, people are advised against going to Sweden.
"I would advise forgetting Sweden for a short time - they say the cops there work like devils," can be read in a chat on a confiscated mobile phone.
"It's difficult now... huge controls," says another.
Despite the positive figures, thefts still occur. Linda Staaf Bydén urges the public to keep their eyes open, for example around rented cottages and houses.
Call the police if you see increased traffic to and from such houses, for example, loading and unloading vehicles, especially at night.
We are very interested in getting that type of information, because we want to be able to strike against precisely the type of infrastructure that international theft gangs use.
The number of reported thefts, excluding shoplifting, has decreased by 51 percent during the period January to July this year compared to the same period in 2022.
The number of reported residential/holiday home-related burglaries has decreased by 36 percent during the same period.
Boat-related thefts have decreased by 47 percent and vehicle-related thefts by 64 percent.
Source: Police
