Response to interpellation 2024/25:741 on problems with loud disturbing music

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! Ulrika Liljeberg has asked me if I and the government see the situation with repeated disturbances and inconveniences with loud noise occurring in many places in our countryside as a problem and if I, if that is the case, intend to take any measures to solve the problem.

Playing loud music late in the evening and at night in places where people live is a behavior that we cannot accept. It can be punishable as disturbing behavior or, in serious cases, even as harassment. To curb this, the Swedish Police Authority has for some years now issued on-the-spot fines for persons who play loud and disturbing music from vehicles. This has led to a sharp increase in the number of fines issued and is an important signal from the side of society.

At least as important as prosecuting this type of crime is to counter the fact that the problems arise in the first place. The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, Brå, has posted knowledge-enhancing information on its website about how, above all, the police and the municipalities can best cooperate regarding the issues.

From the government's side, we will continue the work to improve the police's conditions to carry out their mission. Here, the substantial expansion of the police that is now taking place constitutes a central part. This is reflected, among other things, in the Police Authority's appropriations, which are estimated to increase by around 40 percent during the period 2023–2027.

At the same time as the police are being expanded, it is important that the local police presence increases. It is in that light that the government's mandate for change to the Commissioner of the Swedish Police should be seen, which, among other things, is precisely about re-establishing a locally visible and safety-creating police and good service to the citizens. This is also reflected in the regulatory letter to the Police Authority for 2025, where the authority has been tasked to report on which measures have been taken to ensure an increased local presence throughout the country and which measures have been taken to increase the number of uniformed police officers in outer service.

Through the government's investments in continued police growth and a clear steering towards the local level, the Swedish Police Authority is expected to continue increasing its presence throughout the country.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Ulrika Liljeberg (C)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister for the answer. It is important that the government acknowledges that this is seen as a problem, primarily in the countryside. It is important that it is stated that it has led to a sharp increase in the number of fines issued, that it is an important signal from society's side, and that Brå has provided knowledge-enhancing information. This means that people know that it is criminal, which is normatively important. The state also receives money purely fiscally from the fines that are issued. The problem is, however, not solved by a long way. This crime reflects two aspects: partly the handling of quantity crimes, and partly the police's local presence.

The offense of offensive behavior, together with thefts, property damage, and burglaries, constitutes a large part of the reported crimes. 80 percent, almost eight out of ten reports, are written as such directly. It is good to have new crime codes and such, but four years into the mandate period and after nearly two full years with a new national police chief, I hear both the public and business owners, from LRF Entreprenad and Maskinentreprenörerna to food retailers and other large actors, testify to a different reality.

Quantity crimes are the police's Achilles' heel. It is described that Sweden is a paradise for everyday crimes. A growing threat is seen. Large companies want a national strategy. These are people who both figuratively and literally build Sweden, and they describe something completely different from what the government does. In this year's regulatory letter for the police, there is nothing about quantity crimes – nothing!

So, what is the actual status of the government's ambitions regarding public order offenses? Not because I want to make a pun in the rostrum, but offensive behavior in the form of loud music is perhaps what one hears about most. It is a symptom that the police are not managing the public order offenses. It affects individuals, and it hits small businesses hard.

In a debate in December last year, the Minister for Justice said that small business owners and the residents in these places would experience a change in the tangible near term, approximately within a year. What I have now presented, however, is based on information from this past summer. So my question, which concerns both outrageous behavior such as loud music and many other crimes of mass and everyday crimes throughout our country, is: When will the people get to experience the historically large resource reinforcements that have been raised and that we have stood behind?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I thank Ulrika Liljeberg for the opportunity to discuss the issue.

Since I perceive that the core issue received a satisfactory answer, we have now broadened the scope of the question and are speaking about the crimes against the quantity in general. I have no problem at all with that.

It is quite true that the so-called quantity crimes or citizen-proximate crimes have, over a long period, been very much ignored by practically our entire system, from politics to the police's practice. There have been several reasons. One is that organized crime has become so demanding that it crowds out other important police activity.

It is also so – we received confirmation of this as recently as just a few weeks ago when the police presented a new report from the organized cooperation against organized crime, which covers very many authorities – that the so-called quantity crimes are now also to a large extent a part of organized crime.

When we say that we are fighting economic crime, trying to stifle the criminal economy and mobilizing resources against, for example, the gangs' telephone scams, it is mass crime in everyday life that we are talking about. When the phone rings, far too many elderly people have reason to be afraid rather than happy. It is a mass crime that is to a very high degree affected by the measures being taken against organized crime. Pleasantly enough, we can see that the profits from telephone scams during last year went down by 40 percent, and this year that development seems to continue.

The balance between efforts against organized crime and efforts against quantity crimes now looks different. This means that the mobilization we are now undertaking against organized crime also, to a very high degree, affects the safety of citizens in their everyday lives.

With that said, there is also no doubt that there is a long line of crimes affecting citizens in everyday life where the crime clearance rate has been terribly low.

I often say that many citizens and business owners perceive that it is not meaningful to report a crime to the police because the investigations either never start or are discontinued, not infrequently because the person suspected of the crime has committed other and more serious crimes that are prioritized over the "less serious" crimes that affect citizens in their everyday lives.

It is against that background that we have given a very clear mandate to the Commissioner of the Swedish Police. Firstly, the police growth shall not occur from the waist and upwards, but it shall occur locally. We now, therefore, have more police officers than ever in our local police areas in Sweden, and many more are on the way. Secondly, the mandate clearly shows that the police must make the same journey when it comes to volume crimes as they have done with the most serious and gravest crimes, for example, the shootings. The crime clearance rate there has doubled, which prevents and averts more crime.

I know that the work is very much ongoing, and I will return to the fact that, for example, the clearance of crimes is increasing noticeably also when it comes to quantity crimes.

The short message of the long speech is that the crimes that affect citizens in everyday life must be high priorities. That is what is needed in the management of the police. The long-standing shift is not just on its way, but we are right in the middle of it.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Ulrika Liljeberg (C)

Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Justice for the answer.

My comment is that I think it is good that the government sees the problem with offensive behavior and other crimes of volume, but the problem is still not solved and it persists. I thought that was evident from the answer.

We have all received Noah's report that petty crime is a part of serious organized crime, and the report is good. But many of us, including myself, think that everyday crimes have an intrinsic value. Most people go to work, behave themselves, follow law and order, and pay taxes. When they are subjected to a crime, they expect the police to help them.

When it comes to the local presence, it is quite correctly stated in this year's regulatory letter that the Swedish Police Authority shall report on which measures have been taken to ensure an increased presence throughout the country. It is not directly an increase in ambition that is being discussed, and it is not directly impressive.

Almost everyone thinks it is completely right that the most serious crimes and the most vulnerable receive the most focus and resources, just as in healthcare. But there must be a basic security, a basis for the social contract. If one is to make a comparison with healthcare, one could say that the person who is a victim of a crime in the countryside gets to both cast and stitch themselves up without the help of the police.

Burglaries are occurring where motocross bikes and ATVs are being taken, and the police do not even come to the scene. It is happening here and now.

What we want to see is a police presence and a state presence. Many in our country, especially those who come from the regions I come from in Central Sweden – Bergslagen, Örebro, Dalarna, Västmanland and Gävleborg – see that police stations are being closed down. The state service offices are being closed down. The government's ambition for the state presence as presented from the parliamentary rostrum here in central Stockholm is not visible. When will we get to take part in the large state investments being made? They cannot only be made in the large cities and against serious crime.

Is the policy being put forward here, which means that the police are withdrawing from Bergslagen, in line with the government's policy?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! The police are not being withdrawn from Bergslagen. More police are coming to Bergslagen. There are historically many police on their way into Bergslagen.

If I am to be a little polemical, I can say that the previous Social Democratic government formation – which the Center Party actively supported and maintained, despite there being a bourgeois majority in the chamber – ensured that the growth of the police did not happen locally near the citizens, whether in Mora, Leksand, Orsa, or anywhere else. Possibly it was regional and largely national. It was there that the record-low clearance rates regarding everyday crimes were cemented.

Then it was the question of the fight against organized crime. As recently as today, I was reminded that the Social Democratic Justice Minister whom the Center Party chose to back, Morgan Johansson, blew the danger out of proportion when it comes to organized crime in 2017. It was that arrogance that led to us losing so incredibly much ground against organized crime, while we paradoxically lost our grip as a country regarding the volume crimes and the crimes that affect citizens in their everyday lives.

I want to emphasize that when I say that a growing part of the fraud crimes is part of organized crime, it is not a way to downplay the importance of everyday crime as such. But it is of course important to still inform the citizens that when we can reduce the profits from the phone scams by 40 percent, it helps the elderly people in apartments in Leksand, Borlänge or Falun. That is where the organized crime has an impact.

But we shall also read out the mandate that Petra Lundh received when she became police commissioner. We made it clear that now a corresponding journey must be made regarding everyday crime: that which has been neglected for decades and received no focus during the government that the Center Party chose to shield during the previous term. Now we are turning it around.

So, there will now be many more police officers for Bergslagen. It will be a fight against organized crime, and this helps citizens in Bergslagen. We will now also ensure that the crime clearance rate regarding other citizen-related crime, such as that which is not close to organized crime, will increase. It has become an explicit assignment to the police commissioner.

Without anticipating the report from the Swedish Police Authority, I dare say that the figures that will come from there will also confirm that the turnaround is underway.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Ulrika Liljeberg (C)

Mr. Speaker! I can tell the present audience that once you start in the Riksdag, you must be prepared for the fact that in other contexts you never get as many history lessons as here. You learn a lot about what has happened previously, but I try to focus on the ongoing parliamentary term.

It is now in the summer, between the third and fourth year of the government's mandate period, that the business community describes that property crimes are the police's Achilles' heel, that Sweden is a paradise for everyday crimes, that this is a growing threat and that large companies want to see a national strategy.

The population in Bergslagen sees that the state service offices are being closed and that the signs are being taken down from the police receptions. The regulatory letters do not mention anything about the quantity crimes. The government gives promises that these crimes will be solved in the near future, but it is not visible.

I know that the Minister for Justice, the government, and the Center Party have a common interest in these issues being resolved both in the big city and in the countryside, but we do not see the results yet.

Let me return to the fundamental issue, namely the noise. The noise is heard loudly across the regions of Bergslagen. It should be said that the phrase I began my interpellation with, "Good morning, are you really awake yet?", is what a local politician woke up to when a car was driven through her village one night. Is the government really awake yet and does it understand how this problem affects the social contract in our entire country?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to once again thank Ulrika Liljeberg for the opportunity to speak about both the specific issue of disturbing music and the broader issue of how we are to meet the citizens' very justified expectations that the justice system and crime prevention shall be there for them in everyday life.

Regarding the disturbing music, the noise, the violent driving, and other matters, I want to confirm that the government is very aware of that issue. We are following it closely and are in dialogue with the police about it. We also see a significant increase in the number of fines issued in the area. It is an incredibly important signal from the side of society.

Now we are, as said, investing record amounts in the police. Naturally, there is also a justified expectation from the citizens that it should be noticeable in everyday life. It is, also in Bergslagen, by the fact that there are now a record number of police officers working locally, and more are on their way in. A fundamental part of their duties is, of course, to ensure that the citizens have it safe, free, and calm in their everyday lives. I am convinced that the police in Bergslagen are also dedicated to that task.

Regarding the broader question, I can only state that the extensive shift we are now making regarding organized crime is completely necessary. It is also crime that to a great extent affects citizens in everyday life, even in Bergslagen and in various places in that part of the country.

It does not in any way prevent it from also being a justified expectation that other crime affecting entrepreneurs and citizens in everyday life should receive a completely different level of attention than it has historically. Therefore, we are also very clear in our mandate to the police that this change must occur. I look forward to receiving an account from the police on how that task is being resolved. My impression is that the shift we have seen regarding organized crime is now also underway regarding citizen-proximate crime.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)