RANDOMLY SELECTED RACIAL/ETHNIC PROFILING IN SWEDEN ILLUSTRATION: OSSIAN THESELIUS ILLUSTRATION: Civil Rights Defenders in collaboration with The Department of Criminology, Stockholm University December 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ___________________________________________________________________ 3 Summary ___________________________________________________________________ 4 1. Introduction ______________________________________________________________ 6 2. What is racial/ethnic profiling ________________________________________________ 7 3. What knowledge is there about racial/ethnic profiling in Sweden ___________________ 9 4. How can racial/ethnic profiling be understood? ________________________________ 11 5. How has the study been carried out? _________________________________________ 13 6. Experiences of racial/ethnic profiling _________________________________________ 16 Between questions and answers: “It can’t be a coincidence” _____________________ 16 Between humiliation and resistance: “It’s to degrade you” ________________________ 17 Between criminalisation and crime: “We need the police” ________________________ 19 Between reasons: “In what way did I look suspicious?” __________________________ 22 Between past and present: “We knew that the police was stopping Roma” __________ 23 Between abuse and a cup of tea: “Am I part of a threat against Sweden?” ___________ 24 7. Four arguments about racial/ethnic profiling ___________________________________ 26 A rebuttal: Colour-blind police work __________________________________________ 26 An opening: Mistakes and bad apples ________________________________________ 27 Recognition: Racialising police practices ______________________________________ 30 A discussion: Place, not race/ethnicity ________________________________________ 31 8. Concluding discussion _____________________________________________________ 33 9. References ______________________________________________________________ 35 Author: Leandro Schclarek Mulinari Illustrations: Ossian Theselius Graphic Design: Petra Handin, Poppi Design Printed by AMO-press, Solna, March 2019 Translated by Alice E. Olsson Copyright © 2017 Civil Rights Defenders This report was prepared with funding from the Open Society Foundations. 2 RANDOMLY SELECTED FOREWORD In April 2017, the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm Skåne police authority’s Roma register had been ruled that the police authority in Skåne had stored uncovered, the police apologised to the Roma individuals personal data in a comprehensive register simply concerned. But it remains to be seen whether the police because the individuals included were Roma. Close to will take the significance of the register to heart and 4,700 individuals were awarded damages of historical introduce concrete measures to investigate the root proportions. The Skåne police authority’s register of causes and to prevent racial/ethnic profiling from being Roma individuals is an example of the police acting on used as a working method in the future. the basis of the ethnicity of individual persons. It is a practice with historical roots, in which certain social Law enforcement agencies, not least the police, have a groups have been considered important to control and central role to play in ensuring respect for human rights monitor. and fundamental freedoms. In order for the police to carry out its mission in the best possible way, a high level The profiling of people based on a constructed concept of public confidence is required. It is therefore essential of race or ethnicity as a method in law enforcement that the police carry out its work in a manner that is has been debated in Europe and the US for many years. not discriminatory or perceived as such. This report is Studies have been carried out, legal cases have been a first step towards increasing the awareness of racial/ pursued, and, in countries such as the UK, the problem ethnic profiling in a Swedish context, the manner in has received official recognition and police authorities which it is used as a method in police work, and what the are actively working to identify and correct internal consequences are for the victims as well as for society at deficiencies. In Sweden, the police has consistently large. The purpose of the report is to lay the foundations rejected allegations that profiling is being used as a for a more knowledge-based and constructive discussion working method. When individuals argued that they on working methods, efficiency, and impact. Our hope is were being stopped because of their appearance at the that the report may contribute to measures being taken internal immigration controls in connection with the so- to strengthen the police by ensuring working methods called Reva project, the police brushed the allegations that are characterised by objectivity and perceived as aside and said that their mode of operation was colour- fair. blind. These reactions indicate an ignorance, or even an inability to identify the problems, but also show how John Stauffer individual police officers may face conflicting directives Legal Director, Civil Rights Defenders and be left to answer for their own actions. After the RANDOMLY SELECTED 3 SUMMARY This study is part of a report series from the Department individuals demand an analysis of how this group is of Criminology at Stockholm University. It has been being singled out by the Swedish Security Service (Säpo). carried out by the criminologist Leandro Schclarek Mulinari on behalf of Civil Rights Defenders. The study is From the perspective of the police, the issue of racial/ qualitative and based on interviews with police officers, ethnic profiling is sensitive. Thus, criticism against the as well as individuals who have been subjected to racial/ police is often dismissed. The police officers interviewed ethnic profiling. The interview subjects are Afro-Swedes, in this report describe their own work as colour-blind. Muslims, and Roma, mainly from the marginalised The dominant perspective is that an individual’s residential areas of major cities. The overall aim of background and appearance are not taken into account. the report is to deepen the understanding of a much- In contrast to the groups affected, the police does not debated but under-examined phenomenon in Sweden. experience race/ethnicity as a factor that determines who will be subjected to controls and surveillance. Being singled out by the police because of one’s race or ethnicity is a common experience for certain groups. The police’s logic for explaining experiences of racial/ When subjects of the study recount experiences in which ethnic profiling offers three arguments. race or ethnicity has been a factor in police controls, Firstly, police officers suggest that bad apples exist they are primarily describing everyday situations: driving, within the force, just as in society at large. Racial/ethnic border crossings, or interactions in public spaces. profiling is reduced from phenomenon to individual Frequently being stopped by the police leads to a feeling incident – rationalised as an anomaly. Secondly, certain of being perceived and treated as a potential perpetrator work, such as immigration control, is understood as for no reason. The interviewees further describe the inherently racialised. The third argument has to do with suspicion they face, even when they are the victims of location, as the police refers to how certain residential crime. areas are more crime-ridden than others. This, the police claims, explains why ethnic minorities and racialised The study highlights similarities and differences in how groups are stopped more often by the police than other police treatment is experienced by different ethnic members of society. minorities and racialised groups. Interviews with Roma individuals demonstrate the historical continuity in the context of which racial/ethnic profiling in Sweden must be understood. Experiences recounted by Muslim 4 RANDOMLY SELECTED ILLUSTRATION: OSSIAN THESELIUS ILLUSTRATION: RANDOMLY SELECTED 5 1. INTRODUCTION In the early 1980s, in the wake of the war on drugs in the In times when demands for tougher measures, more US, profiles are developed to stop suspected couriers at police officers, and more control and surveillance is airports. This is later extended to highways, and police the prevailing criminal policy line, this is important to officers are trained to identify potential criminal drivers. keep in mind. The police is the authority responsible As an effect, blacks and people of Latin-American for safeguarding law and order, sometimes by force – if origin are stopped for minor offences in unprecedented necessary. The goal is to establish boundaries between numbers. This gives rise to the wordplay “driving while criminals and law-abiding citizens, but in practice black” or “driving while brown” (DWB). The concept refers unequal power relations are also maintained based on to the offence driving while intoxicated (DWI) and points people’s race or ethnicity. At the same time, the police has to race/ethnicity as a crucial category in police checks a difficult social mission: to stop and prevent crime. The (Rusell, 1998; Harris, 2006; Meeks, 2010). job description brings to the fore a conflict between legal certainty and efficiency, which in turn relates to questions An academic term that describes the police’s practice about the legitimacy of the police force and the principle of categorisation on the basis of appearance and of equality before the law. assumptions