Skåne police kept quiet about Roma registries
The Skåne police force has become embroiled in a fresh controversy over the Roma registries after it emerged they didn't admit the records were on file when asked by the Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection last year.
It was revealed earlier this week by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that the Skåne police had kept two registries containing thousands of Roma names. Over a thousand young children were included on the lists.
Last year the Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection (Säkerhets- och integritetsskyddsnämnden - SIN) asked Skåne police if they had any records containing sensitive information - six months after the names of over a thousand Roma children were added to a registry called "Total".
The southern Swedish police force replied saying such information could be found in four separate registries. However, they declined to mention the existence of the Roma registries one of which was in a computer file folder called "itinerants" (kringresande).
DN reported that the same request was made to all 21 police forces in Sweden. Seven of them replied saying that sensitive personal information could be found in undercover activities but the Skåne police was not one of the forces to give this response.
When asked why the police force had not mentioned the existence of the registries to SIN, Klas Johansson of Skåne police said it was "hard to form an opinion on it".
Johansson added that he was considering his position within the police in the wake of the incident.
His colleague Petra Stenkula said that she had personally banned the use of ethnic based Roma registries by the Skåne police at the start of the last decade.
The information in the Roma registry was used as a means of crime prevention, DN reported, and was widely available to police employees to assist with investigations.
SIN is currently doing a new inspection on the activities of the Skåne police.
The Local/pr
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It was revealed earlier this week by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that the Skåne police had kept two registries containing thousands of Roma names. Over a thousand young children were included on the lists.
Last year the Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection (Säkerhets- och integritetsskyddsnämnden - SIN) asked Skåne police if they had any records containing sensitive information - six months after the names of over a thousand Roma children were added to a registry called "Total".
The southern Swedish police force replied saying such information could be found in four separate registries. However, they declined to mention the existence of the Roma registries one of which was in a computer file folder called "itinerants" (kringresande).
DN reported that the same request was made to all 21 police forces in Sweden. Seven of them replied saying that sensitive personal information could be found in undercover activities but the Skåne police was not one of the forces to give this response.
When asked why the police force had not mentioned the existence of the registries to SIN, Klas Johansson of Skåne police said it was "hard to form an opinion on it".
Johansson added that he was considering his position within the police in the wake of the incident.
His colleague Petra Stenkula said that she had personally banned the use of ethnic based Roma registries by the Skåne police at the start of the last decade.
The information in the Roma registry was used as a means of crime prevention, DN reported, and was widely available to police employees to assist with investigations.
SIN is currently doing a new inspection on the activities of the Skåne police.
The Local/pr
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