"Rim frost does not bite the gang crime"

Despite major efforts against gang violence and the prevailing corona pandemic, the number of shootings in Sweden is increasing. A total of 15 people have been killed in the deadly shooting violence between January 1 and April 15. The number of deaths is at the same level as last year, but both the total number of shootings, 86, and the number of injured, 32, have increased, figures from the police show.

To SVT News, Stefan Hector, national commander-in-chief of Operation Rimfrost, says that the intervention prevented serious violent crimes and reduced the deadly violence. But Johan Forssell, the Moderate's spokesperson for political affairs, calls the continuing problems worrying. According to him, it is now clear that Operation Rimfrost, which was launched in mid-November, does not bite the gang crime.

- I am convinced that the police are doing everything they can, but now it has been a number of months and the shootings have increased, instead of going down. Then it is clear that Rimfrost does not bite the gang crime, says Johan Forssell.

Forssell wants the so-called quantity discount, when a perpetrator receives a joint penalty for several crimes, to change. He also raises the M-proposal from this fall on visitation zones as a measure to tackle gang crime.

- We think the police should have access to completely different tools, such as visitation zones where you can look for weapons and explosives.

In February, police announced that Operation Rimfrost will be blown off in June, which worries Johan Forsell.

- When Rimfrost was obviously not the answer to the problems, we are back on box one. The government must take responsibility for ensuring that the police have sufficient resources and legislation to handle the situation. That issue was not resolved last fall, and is not resolved now.

SVT News has sought the Interior Minister Mikael Damberg (S) who, through his press secretary Per Strängberg, announces that Damberg currently has no opportunity to leave a comment .