by Jack Edstrand

Created on: April 19, 2008   Last Updated: June 24, 2008

130 individuals pressed charges against swedish police officers - no prosecution !

In 2007 there were 130 people in Vsternorrland, Sweden, who filed reports about miss conducts and unfair treatment comitted by the police officers in the district. Not single one of the complains lead to convictions or even prosecution of the suspects.
- Mainly the only witnesses to the alleged crime is other policemen and a unwritten rule says that youll never testify against your fellow officers, establishes Jerzy Sarnecki, criminology professor at the Stockholm University. Temporarily chief of police Vsternorrland, Sweden, Gran Westman has another point of wiev:

- Theres nothing suspicious about this! he claims.

- Its extremley rare that a policeman gets covicted of any crime, states professor Sarnecki.
If a policeofficer in Vsternorrland is charged with miss conduct or irregularities on duty it will be investigated by internal affairs in Ume. Last year they had 130 filed reports against policemen and not one of them lead to convictions.
- We have a legal system that works this way. The district attorney is the official that decides if theres going to be a prosecution or not. Not the police, says Gran Westman.
Jerzy Sarnecki emphasizes the difficulty to even get a policeofficer convicted:
- In many cases there are contradictory statements. The police officers often claims that they used as much force necessary in a certain situation but the subjected person claims it was a matter of assault.
Sarnecki claims that hes convinced that policeofficers in general "are watching each others backs" in every aspect.
- The most common scenario is that a policeman is the only witness to the alleged crime of a fellow officer and by tradition they never give a collegue away, says the professor of criminology.
The chief of police, Gran Westman, doesnt agree.
- If those circumstanstances would be plausible we would investigate it very seriously. But mainly it isnt the public who files the complains its the police officers themselves, maintains Westman.
Gran Westman declares that the public inclination to report irregulaities has increased in every crime category and that every single suspicion of a comitted crime should lead to pressed charges against the suspected perpetrator.
- If you looked every single case over you would probably ask yourself how some of them even could be a subject for a report or complain, but we want to keep our "own sheets clean", the chief of police says.
Jerzy Sarnecki believes that an increasing awareness among the public is the main reason behind the increasing charges and complains.
- The citizens becomes more and more aware of their rights and that implies a greater willingness to press charges.
In 2006 a total of 4.411 policemen in Sweden were subjects of filed reports for miss conducts or irrregularities on duty. Only two lead to prosecution. None to a conviction.
The number of charges against police officers is constantly increasing all over Sweden. At the same time there are fewer prosecutions than ever in the country.
- These circumstances has been strongly debated in many forums for a long period of time. The main issue is that theres only policemen who are qualified and avaliable to conduct an investigation about the charges and complains against themselves, concludes Jerzy Sarnecki.
JACK EDSTRAND.

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