Indicator history

Ethnic profiling as a police method has not been discussed much in Sweden. It is only recently that some researchers have started to analyse ethnic profiling from a Swedish perspective. In a report from 2006, Sophie Hydén[1] concludes that ethnic profiling in Sweden is used mostly informally by the police, compared to in the United States where ethnic profiling has been used as an official method. Moreover, Swedish police officers use this method when conducting controls of foreigners and when conducting other kinds of controls. The persons in Sweden that are most commonly victims of ethnic profiling are persons originating from countries outside Europe.

Although the term ethnic profiling is not discussed much, there are indications of ethnic profiling in Sweden. An example is when several incidents of ethnic profiling  within the police force  surfaced during December 2008 in various media. The first incident revealed was when the racist comments were caught on a surveillance video the police used during the riots in Rosengård in December 2008. The police was filmed using racist language calling immigrant youth "damn little apes” during the riots. Later it was also revealed that fictitious names such as “Negro Niggersson” and “Oskar Negro” were used by the police force in Skåne [Southern Sweden] in an internal education during the spring of 2008 (http://www.expressen.se/kvp/niggersson-anvands-som-laroexempel/ ). These incidents caused outrage among NGOs, politicians, and the public. The police men were reported to the Ombudsman against Ethnic discrimination and to the Justitieombudsmannnen [Parliamentary Ombudsman] one of the organizations that submitted a complaint against the police force in Skåne was the organisation Jämlikhet för Afrosvenskar [Afro-Swedish for equality]. According to the organization the incident shows the extension of the racist culture within the police force towards Afro-Swedes in particular and other minority groups.