Four out of ten companies in Gothenburg are affected by crime

A total of about 33,000 companies responded to the survey, of which 1,630 in the Gothenburg region. Companies here are more affected by crime and insecurity than the average in Sweden. Thefts, burglaries and scams are the biggest problems.

Rudolf Antoni, regional manager for Swedish Enterprise in Västra Götaland, says the result is serious but not surprising.

- When we have asked what is the most important measure to improve the business climate, the answer has been to improve security and reduce crime. On a priority list, it comes at the highest. Therefore, we have added that question to the survey.

But as you ask you get answers, how have you handled that problem?

- By including a wide range of response options, from "very high" to "very low". It can be said that five percent is not affected at all by the issue. But we have focused on the maximum values, says Rudolf Antoni.

But how does the perceived insecurity match the actual crime statistics?

- Different. For example, if we take diesel thefts, the statistics show that reported crimes of that kind go down over time, while the companies themselves say that it only gets worse. The explanation is that you have been abandoned and have stopped reporting to the police because you do not think it leads anywhere, says Rudolf Antoni.

Erik Nord, Gothenburg Police Chief, spontaneously thinks it is unfortunate that as many people answered as they did in the survey. At the same time, he believes that these are experiences that do not always correspond to reality, and that Sweden is, after all, relatively safe.

- But as one psychologist said: We humans are programmed so that we have four-lane highways for our concerns, but only a small path for contentment. The fact that everything gets worse is not always right, and dystopia can be dangerous in itself. Of course, we take this into consideration and ponder what it means, he says.

The differences between the municipalities in the Gothenburg region are very large. 41 per cent of the companies in Gothenburg state that they are greatly affected, while only 17 per cent of the companies in Tjörn give the same answer.

Even on a national basis this is how it looks; the big cities have the greatest insecurity, while the municipalities outside have the better. But there are a lot of exceptions as well.

When the pandemic is over, he hopes that the municipalities, the police and the companies together will focus more on the security issue.