The positive effect is experienced in areas all over Sweden, according to the police.
Had you asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said it was chaos. But now it's much better, says a shop owner in Rågsved.
The bakery's large windows face directly onto the pedestrian street in the Stockholm suburb of Rågsved's center. From around 3 pm in the afternoon, late into the evenings, the place was like occupied by young people who frightened the local population. But that's no longer the case.
Rågsved is often cited as a success story for recent measures against criminal networks. Since the police in 2024 got the opportunity to, through prosecutors, issue preventive stay-away orders, the open drug scene in the Stockholm suburb has in practice disappeared.
Then it's not that the sale of narcotics in Rågsved has stopped. But it doesn't happen in a place that everyone passes when they go to school or the subway, says Andreas Lundberg, operational coordinator at the local police in Farsta.
Personal freedom is being questioned
In total, 120 people have been issued with preventive stay-away orders since the legislation was introduced in February last year. Of these, 117 decisions are active in September 2025. The decisions are spread across the country, but are mainly found in central and southern Sweden, according to police commissioner Kristian Malzoff at the police's national operational department (Noa).
In September, there were 47 active stay-away orders in Stockholm, in Gothenburg the figure was 20 and in Malmö 9. The regions have not made an effect evaluation like Stockholm has, but "the positive effect experienced in Stockholm is likely to be the same all over the country", Malzoff writes in an email.
The police's new tool is, however, not uncontroversial. When the law was still just a proposal, the Swedish Bar Association and the Institute for Human Rights, among others, criticized the preventive stay-away orders for restricting people's personal freedom without being tried in court. The Equality Ombudsman has also expressed fears that stay-away orders may be used in a discriminatory manner.
In Rågsved, gross violence and coercion have decreased since the stay-away orders were issued, as have reports of narcotics, according to a report from the Stockholm police.
I hope it continues like this, says a shop owner, who out of fear for the criminals does not want to give his name.
They come here sometimes, but say themselves "I'm not allowed to be here" and move on. Rågsved has become much better, he says.
New areas are affected
Several factors are behind the success in Rågsved. The fact that the police have good control over the center, with good opportunities for camera surveillance, is one of them.
A 20-minute drive away is the suburb of Alby, which is 6.5 times larger than Rågsved. Despite more stay-away orders being issued here than in Rågsved, the effect is not considered to be as good. The Stockholm police report shows that the number of reported crimes has not decreased in Alby. The area's size is believed to be one reason. Many of those who sell narcotics in the area also live there, which means that the route to and from the residence must be exempt from the stay-away order.
People who have been issued with stay-away orders have been pushed to areas that did not previously have narcotics problems, says Ludvig Bröms, community police officer in Botkyrka in Alby.
When the new areas - housing associations, condominiums, row house areas - suddenly become arenas for what the police call "city center problems", the willingness to report crimes may have increased, speculates Bröms.
Then there are other conditions for us to work forward-looking and get good results quickly, he says.
Found narcotics on the floor
But in Alby Center, the view of the stay-away orders is still positive.
- They stood there all the time. I have even found narcotics on the floor here when I was going to open the store, says an entrepreneur and points out from his shop into the center.
Now you only see stressed parents of small children, schoolchildren, and people on their way from work, to the stores, and home again.
His colleague in another business in the center, who also does not want to give his name, agrees.
Many stores have lost a lot because of those guys. But now it works perfectly.
A stay-away order means that a person is not allowed to stay in a restricted area in a public place. The person does not have to be convicted of a crime.
It can be used against a person who deliberately promotes that a group of people commit crimes there and there is a risk that firearms or explosives will be used.
Decisions on stay-away orders are made by prosecutors, after a report from the police. Even children from 15 years old can be issued with a stay-away order, which applies for six months at a time. The person who has been issued with a stay-away order can appeal the decision to a court.
Even people who promote crime that in other ways is likely to seriously harm public safety can be issued with a stay-away order.
Anyone who breaks a stay-away order can be sentenced to imprisonment for up to one year, or a fine.
The law on stay-away orders came into force on February 1, 2024
Three conclusions can be drawn from the Stockholm police's comparison of the effect of preventive stay-away orders in different areas in 2024.
+ The restricted area should not be too large, but the place should be possible to monitor.
+ Stay-away orders are likely to have a greater effect if they do not need to be exempted for the person who lives in the affected area.
+ The crime in question is not linked to individual individuals. To best change the dynamics of a crime-prone place, several people should therefore be issued with a stay-away order at the same time.
Source: The police
