Due to the fact that narcotics is a highly current topic in the mass media, which draws attention to the prominent change that has taken place in the drug market in recent years, there is therefore not much significant research in the research area linked to Sweden yet. Therefore, this study will focus on investigating how the crime prevention and crime fighting efforts against narcotics are applied by the police in Police Region North in Sweden, as well as which crime prevention efforts the police believe should be used against narcotics in the future. The importance of this investigation can therefore be a contributing factor in creating an understanding of the role of narcotics in society and how the change in the narcotics market means a development in the way the police work. The study is an inductive qualitative method where we used interviews with the police and the Police Authority's strategy documents, which were analyzed separately according to a thematic content analysis with inspiration from Bacchi's analysis method WPR. The result showed how the prominent changes in the drug market constituted forced developments for the Police Agency's strategies and the police's daily work regarding the presented drug problems. Furthermore, we can also see how significant differences are presented between the Police Authority's strategy document and the police's own statements regarding how the crime prevention and crime-fighting work should be carried out, and is actually carried out. Finally, we can conclude that the crime prevention work against narcotics that was previously de-prioritised has resulted in the police today still prioritizing crime-fighting work instead of crime prevention. Which, according to the police's own statements, has led to an increase in drug crime and insecurity in society.
2024-01-12