Malmö Centre for Policing and Prevention

This theme studies how the police work together to build a better local community, often focusing on interventions common to a neighbourhood. The focus here is on volume crime and insecurity rather than (gang) violence. This may involve tackling residential burglary, vandalism or drug sales. This includes supporting initiatives such as neighbourhood watch or night-time walking, but also problem-oriented police work in collaboration with municipalities and property managers, as well as location-based police work to prevent crime. The Department of Criminology has monitored and researched such initiatives for many years.

Neighbourhood watch has a proven crime prevention effect, but it is only one of several examples of how organising residents can reduce crime by strengthening the collective ability to deal with problems in a residential area. An area with higher collective ability functions better and also tends to have lower levels of insecurity and disorder. Mellgren, Ivert and Gerell have all researched this type of relationship. The police often work in collaboration with municipalities and property managers to strengthen collective capacity and reduce insecurity and crime, not least in vulnerable areas. This work is often based on what is usually referred to as problem-oriented policing, where a problem is identified, causes are analysed and measures are put in place which are then followed up. Through regular meetings, joint situational pictures are drawn up which are the starting point for the work. Both Gerell and Ivert have been involved in this type of police collaboration, but there is potential here to further develop working methods and produce clear knowledge about what type of interventions work best, and under what circumstances they do so.

Another type of measure that is often deployed against volume crime is hot spot policing, usually by deploying foot patrol officers in places where there is a lot of crime. This is a well-established method for reducing crime in international research, but there is little research on the subject in Sweden.

This theme studies how police investigations can become more efficient and legally secure and how new technologies can contribute to this. Previous projects have dealt with how camera surveillance can play a role in criminal investigations, but knowledge is needed in several other areas.

Society has a far-reaching responsibility to prevent and investigate crime. Failure to do so has significant consequences for family members, but also for the security of society and thus the health and well-being of the population. In addition, detecting and preventing new crime, especially among young people, is made more difficult when a perpetrator cannot be linked to an offence.

A research project on police investigations of serious violent offences is underway at the unit for police work, focusing on what in an investigation causes a case to remain unsolved. Although this is an important area, there is a large lack of research to improve the police's investigative work and research needs to be developed.

Gerell teaches a course for new homicide investigators, where the importance of technical evidence is emphasised. The government has also announced that major investments will be made in new technology, such as automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), increased facial recognition in criminal investigations and a major expansion of camera surveillance. New technology has the potential to greatly change and streamline criminal investigation work. Here, research can play a major role in developing knowledge that ensures that the technology is used in a good way. In addition, there is also an increased use of sound sensors to identify offences. In addition to extensive research on camera surveillance, Gerell has also researched sound sensors to identify shootings in Wilmington, USA, but when this technology is on its way to Sweden, new knowledge will be needed.