- Although outright sensationalism is avoided by the Swedish police, they do rely on their own set of labels.
Rosengård is on the national list of "especially vulnerable areas" which means that it has a low socio-economic status and is plagued by criminal activity, or as the police puts it, has "a high concentration of criminals."
This category is often erroneously translated into 'no-go zone' by international media outlets. According to the police ́s definition, these are areas where parallel societal structures may exist in the form of, for example, Islamic fundamentalism, and where the police finds it "hard or almost impossible " to fulfil their duty.
Sjögren says that many years ago there were times when the emergency services wouldn't drive into Rosengård without police escort - but that this is no longer the case. "I would have liked to change 'especially-vulnerable areas' to 'especially-prioritised areas' because that is what they are in reality. But the police authorities in Stockholm have decided to use this term and they can't change it now."
There are also two other defined categories; "vulnerable area" and "risk zone." Although the point of the national list is to safeguard the rights and safety of the population, critics argue that it may ostracise certain groups, primarily minorities.
I used to live in Rosengård, in some ways it was a better place to live than where I live now. It has plenty of green spaces and playgrounds and rent was reasonably cheap. My current neighborhood was taken off the list of vulnerable areas a couple of years ago, even though drug-dealing is still very much present and just a week ago a 15-year-old was shot dead at my local pizzeria. Combined with the recent murder of a young mother with her baby in her arms in broad daylight, the national police has decided to reinforce the city and the police has become very visible in my neighborhood.
I agree with the article in that it feels like crime has been going down generally, but there's been more headline-catching events. Last year a group of criminals were killed in a drive-by shooting a short distance from a police station, a gang leader was shot dead during morning rush-hour across the street from where I live, a hit-squad from Malmö was arrested and extradited to Spain for carrying out contract killings there, and it felt like almost every week there was a car, apartment or store getting bombed.