The so-called ‘safety package’, or safety package, was announced by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson together with Åkesson, leader of the populist Sweden Democrats, and marks the first major policy announcement on combatting gun crime since the new government took power in October.
“We have worked intensively to carry out the reforms which we have promised the Swedish people,” Kristersson said as he announced the series of measures, pointing out that Sweden has this year set a new record for the number of deadly shootings, with 60 people killed.
“This is a dominant social problem in Sweden and something we must do something about.”
Åkesson said that Sweden’s problems with gang crime were the result of “decades of irresponsible politics” and said that use of stop-and-search zones in Denmark had helped police confiscate weapons from gang criminals and to find drugs, and could have a “decisive impact” in Sweden.
Bringing in stop-and-search zones would allow police to search people without a warrant for a limited period of time in a certain area of a city.
“The analysis shows that insecurity is at its greatest in areas [of our cities] classed as ‘vulnerable’, and its our judgement that stop-and-search zones have worked in Denmark, which is why we are ready to try them, together with other measures,” he said.
The government hopes that allowing anonymous witnesses in court will help police overcome the code of silence that exists among gang members, and the fear of reprisals felt by the witnesses in areas with problems with gang crime.
¨The inquiry will look at how witnesses would be able to testify anonymously in court, a system for admitting anonymous evidence from police interviews in court, and also a system of crown witnesses, which would allow courts to give lower sentences to criminals who testify against their peers.
The government has also put out two further proposals for consultation. The first is on reducing the age at which social services can intervene and take action on a child without parental approval from 15 years old to 12 years old.
The second will make Sweden’s regional and municipal governments responsible for carrying out work to identify young people at risk of being drawn into gang crime and for taking action to prevent this from happening.
The government has appointed Karin Erlingsson, the legal chief of the Swedish Customs Service, to lead the inquiry into stop-and-search zones and Fredrik Wersäll, the current chief of the Royal Court of Sweden and a former head of Sweden’s Supreme Court, to investigate the possibility of introducing anonymous witnesses.
Erlingsson will start work after the New Year and submit her conclusions in early 2024, while Wersäll will submit his conclusions on anonymous witnesses in October 2023, and on crown witnesses and admitting evidence from police interviews in the spring of 2024.