Mats Löfving

Born in Norrköping in 1961, Löfving joined the Swedish Police Academy and graduated in 1981, serving as a law enforcement officer in his home town. In 1988, he gained a law degree, and from 1995 to 1998 was the most senior officer of the Norrköping criminal investigation department. From 1999 to 2001, he was Deputy Head of the Police Unit at the Ministry of Justice.[1] In 2002, he was appointed as Deputy Chief of Police of the Östergötland County force and in 2004 became the Chief there. With effect from 1 February 2009, he transferred to become Chief of Police of Västra Götaland County, commenting that he was taking on a bigger job and that it was healthy for Östergötland and himself to gain different perspectives.[2]

In November 2014, Löfving was appointed deputy director of the Swedish Police Authority (SPA) for a four-year term of office, and he also became the first head of the Police Authority's newly formed National Operations Department.[3] In October 2020, Löfving was appointed as regional police chief for Stockholm and Gotland.[4]

Sweden has been known for its welcoming stance with regard to global refugees, but so many immigrants have arrived in the country that new problems have arisen for the police. In January 2015 when he was deputy director of the SPA, Löfving responded to the 2014 mosque arson attacks in Sweden by assigning more patrols to the mosques, and by ordering greater discussion between the police and immigrant Muslim communities in Sweden. He said the SPA was cooperating with the Swedish Security Service and giving a higher priority to investigations of mosque attacks.[5]

In November 2019, Löfving set up a police task force named Operation Hoarfrost to counter a new wave of immigrant gang violence. The stated goal was to reduce shootings and bombings, to arrest gang members, to take weapons away from gangs, and to promote public safety. He said the problem was an "exceptional situation" requiring "special methods".[6][7] Prime Minister Stefan Löfven expressed approval of Löfving's new task force.[6]

Löfving made headlines in September 2020, when he spoke out on Swedish Radio about the problem of immigrant family-based criminal gangs in Sweden, of which he said there were at least forty. He was quoted as saying that "Far from everyone wants to be a part of Swedish society"[8] and that some families had come to Sweden "solely for the purpose of organizing and systematizing crime",[9] bringing with them their own parallel systems of government.[8]

The Spectator reported Löfving's Swedish Radio interview as "a bombshell".[9] Swedish journalist Fredrik Haage remarked that, prior to Löfving's announcement, the idea that crime families were operating in Sweden was a "xenophobic conspiracy theory", but after the announcement, discussion was rising about the problem of immigrant crime.[10] Löfven pushed back against Löfving, saying "I do not want to link crime to ethnicity".[9]

Linda H. Staaf, head of the National Operations Department of the SPA, said that the family-based gangs in Sweden were composed of a combination of immigrants from three and four decades ago, and newly arrived immigrants who were determined to continue their criminal activities in Sweden.[11]