Stockholm has been hard hit in the latest wave of violence in Sweden. In just one day, on Tuesday, a series of explosions occurred in stairwells in the southern parts of the city.
Since then, hundreds of reinforcements have been called in to the capital. Now, Ulf Kristersson wants to see a similar effort from Stockholm's city council.
I want to urge Stockholm to match it with a hundred security guards, who can be where young people are, he says.
Fewer Security Guards
The newspaper Mitti recently reported that the number of security guards in Stockholm has decreased significantly since the red-green government took over after the election.
According to the newspaper, there are currently 13 security guards in the field in Stockholm, who are jointly supposed to cover eleven districts. This has been criticized by the opposition.
Alexander Ojanne admits that the red-green government in Stockholm Municipality is now employing fewer security guards and instead has prioritized resources for crime prevention work.
We have put money into social services and done a lot of things that have actually had an effect in both security measurements and reduced the number of socially vulnerable areas and fewer open drug scenes, he says.
Lack of Police
Ojanne believes that instead, more police are needed in Stockholm. The police force has been expanded in recent years, but too few have ended up in Stockholm, according to Ojanne.
If Stockholm had had the same percentage growth in police as the rest of the country, we would have had around 800 more police. But instead, Stockholm is the only police region where police density in relation to the population is decreasing.
