Swedish Police Raid Teenagers Playing Call of Duty

[MrTub]

i recall a story that was exactly this to come out of scandinavia a year or two ago... do the police have nothing else to do there??

I think you are thinking about this

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article8417399.ab
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107940-Kinect-Sports-Causes-Police-Raid

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

I can say that it is really not that difficult to differentiate between real gunfire and game gunfire, but then again, I deal with guns on a daily basis (forced to, but whatever[stupid conscription]).

To be fair, the Swedes have fairly strict gun laws. I doubt the women who made the call had ever fired a gun, much less heard one.
I mean in her defense, if you are hearing gunfire and cries of help emanating from your neighbors house, you would probably be a little confused.

 

[Dogstile]

Honestly, the people being questioned is enough for a facepalm. You burst into a house where someone has recorded gunshots and inside the house are a bunch of kids playing cod, the appropriate response is fumble and apology, mutter something about getting the door fixed and leaving.

 

[Jack Rascal]

Sounds to me like the police there need better training and higher standards. Not to mention policies where the police go after people who file false reports civilly if nothing else. To be honest I can't believe someone would mistake a video game for real violence... even grandparents, since the sound effects are QUITE differant. That leads me to believe a case like this is an intentionally false report intended as a phrank, or motivated by another reason (not liking the neighbor, too much noise, etc...). If the neighbor insists they actually believed this they might need to be committed, because frankly if this causes them to lose track of reality the same thing could happen with a loud playing radio or TV.

It was someone passing by who heard the boys. They heard gun shots and one of the kids screaming "help, help, help". This lead to them calling the police. Nothing wrong with that.

Source http://www.sydsvenskan.se/lund/polisen-stormade-dataspelskvall/
And another source in English http://www.thelocal.se/45844/20130127/#.UQbN9GdLfzB

And I can believe that my grandmother would mistake gun shots from TV to real ones. And she lived through war.

Over a period of decades I've heard some interesting things about Swedish/Norweigian/Danish cops and really it paints a pretty unflattering picture, making me think it's easier to take a "Swedish Policewoman" in a porno more seriously than the real thing. I don't know how much the countries from this neck of the woods participate in international policing, but it occurs to me that the US, UK, etc... run programs to help train and educate policemen from all over the world through things like Interpol. I'm just saying... it hardly seems like this is the first time we've been looking at one of these police misfires, and while it happens to all countries, it isn't like you see much international news like "Swedish Police bust multi-billion dollar drug smuggling ring" once in a while to balance it out. It's not like you can say "well on the mean streets of Sweden, a bit of occasional overreaction happens, I mean look at all the other crap going on..."

Someone called the police and reported hearing gun shots and someone calling help. What was the police supposed to do? Ask the caller to go and investigate? Ignore the call? Only dispatch one police officer?

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

The thing is that even though every male has to go for an evaluation only a minority actually join up. In Denmark there is approximately 5,7 million people ( rough estimate might be 100.000 more or less) and only 4200 (again roughly) joins a year. Mostly volunteers. Only males are forced to go to the evaluation females have to volunteer. couldn't find the official statistic but even though I work proffesionally in the army the chances that a person I meet in the street has even been in the drafted service is roughly less than 1 in 10.

Denmark is a different thing than Sweden though. From what I gather my dad's generation (40 years old by now, born late 60's) all had to do "lumpen" (compulsory military training) at 18 unless they had some reason that made them unfit. So I think that a substantial amount of the men above 40 actually would know what a gun sounds like. That was during the cold war though. When it was time for me I just got a form to fill in and I told them I was a crazy loner with no friends and anger management issues. They never even called me in for evaluation . Though from what I hear just ticking "Nej" on the box that asked if I wanted to do military service would have sufficed. Later they put the compulsory part of it on ice because we ain't got no communists to worry about anymore and because it was pretty much voluntary by the end anyway.

 

[Therumancer]

Sounds to me like the police there need better training and higher standards. Not to mention policies where the police go after people who file false reports civilly if nothing else. To be honest I can't believe someone would mistake a video game for real violence... even grandparents, since the sound effects are QUITE differant. That leads me to believe a case like this is an intentionally false report intended as a phrank, or motivated by another reason (not liking the neighbor, too much noise, etc...). If the neighbor insists they actually believed this they might need to be committed, because frankly if this causes them to lose track of reality the same thing could happen with a loud playing radio or TV.

It was someone passing by who heard the boys. They heard gun shots and one of the kids screaming "help, help, help". This lead to them calling the police. Nothing wrong with that.

Source http://www.sydsvenskan.se/lund/polisen-stormade-dataspelskvall/
And another source in English http://www.thelocal.se/45844/20130127/#.UQbN9GdLfzB

And I can believe that my grandmother would mistake gun shots from TV to real ones. And she lived through war.

Over a period of decades I've heard some interesting things about Swedish/Norweigian/Danish cops and really it paints a pretty unflattering picture, making me think it's easier to take a "Swedish Policewoman" in a porno more seriously than the real thing. I don't know how much the countries from this neck of the woods participate in international policing, but it occurs to me that the US, UK, etc... run programs to help train and educate policemen from all over the world through things like Interpol. I'm just saying... it hardly seems like this is the first time we've been looking at one of these police misfires, and while it happens to all countries, it isn't like you see much international news like "Swedish Police bust multi-billion dollar drug smuggling ring" once in a while to balance it out. It's not like you can say "well on the mean streets of Sweden, a bit of occasional overreaction happens, I mean look at all the other crap going on..."

Someone called the police and reported hearing gun shots and someone calling help. What was the police supposed to do? Ask the caller to go and investigate? Ignore the call? Only dispatch one police officer?

Righto on the last one.

The reason why you send one cop to investigate to a call like this at first (based on second hand information) is because it can easily be crank call or bad information from a civilian. That way you don't waste time, effort, and departmental resources by sending a SWAT team into a Frat party.

A big part of it is also because if you respond with this kind of force on every report of where it might be needed, it means that if you get a false report the team could be tied up when they might be needed elsewhere. For example having someone call in a report like this on one side of town, while my team of merry masked robbers with AK-47s hits a jewlery shop on the other side of town, slowing the response time of the only force in the region with the firepower to stop us while we make off with the loot, gunning down any cops with handguns left to respond because we've got assault rifles.

As I said, law enforcement in this part of the world has never exactly seemed to be "with it" so to speak.

Also understand there is a huge differance between "I see a guy with a gun shooting people" or "a guy with a gun is trying to shoot me" and "I hear sounds of gunshots and cries for help". It also comes down to multiple reports. Basically if there is something major going down more than one person is going to hear it. When someone does a shooting rampage or whatever nowadays you get tons of calls, tweets, etc... about it all at once. That's a good sign it might be a real problem. If the neighbor hears the stuff on one side of the house where it's happening for example, the other neighbor on the otherside is also likely to hear it and call. Sure they might not be home or whatever, but as dispatch to look at the facts as they approach to you and the probabilities. One call based on suspician, you send ONE cop, who you tell there might be something dangerous, they go in on guard, as a scout, then if they spot something they call
for backup.

In short a competant law enforcement team should never send SWAT after a bunch of kids playing X-box.

To put this into personal perspective, for a while when I worked as monitor room I acted as the dispatch for outside patrol that covered the parking lots and everything outside the casino door, as well as watching pretty much all non-gaming areas of the casino back of the house and otherwise (garages, hotels, retail, cages, etc...). This later went totally tribal (long, boring, story) but the bottom line is that at this time I had access to all kinds of wonderful tools, outside patrol vehicles, bike patrol, security supervisors, investigators, tribal police, and even our invited
on-site state police. Let's say for the sake of arguement I get a report from strange sounds coming from a dark van with tinted windows, it sounds like someone could be getting raped or killed in there. That is indeed possible, screwed up things happen, but as a professional I know that it could be something lurid like people having sex, or just some cheapskates watching TV in the back of the van because they don't want to pay for a hotel room, maybe both. With one report I am going to send a single security officer to check this out, letting them know the reason and what they are looking for. I *could* jump to the conclusion "ZOMG Someone is being killed", have the entire garage locked down with vehicles on all on and off ramps, and have gun-toting cops and stuff running in there like gangbusters on my say so,
but in doing so I'd be a frakking idiot. Being a cop of certain kinds of security is not safe, and going out there to stick your head out is one of the risks involved, 99.99% it's nothing, but people are always on their toes or the 00.01% it's not going to be. If you treat every incident like it's that 00.01% your going to either create a police state, scare customers away, or just as likely piss everyone off for being too touchy since responses like this for nothing cost time, effort, and manpower, and sometimes even money depending on what resources you wind up tapping. Doing your job right as dispatch means the right tool, for the right job. This was an epic fail for Swedish law enforcement.

 

[bificommander]

Even if someone isn't familiar with the sounds of violent computer games, or y'know, movies: I'm pretty sure the length and intensity of gunfire in an average FPS match would require a few platoons to pull of. Didn't the neighbour think it odd that a small war was being waged within a single appartment for however long it took the police to arrive?

 

[Therarchos]

The thing is that even though every male has to go for an evaluation only a minority actually join up. In Denmark there is approximately 5,7 million people ( rough estimate might be 100.000 more or less) and only 4200 (again roughly) joins a year. Mostly volunteers. Only males are forced to go to the evaluation females have to volunteer. couldn't find the official statistic but even though I work proffesionally in the army the chances that a person I meet in the street has even been in the drafted service is roughly less than 1 in 10.

Denmark is a different thing than Sweden though. From what I gather my dad's generation (40 years old by now, born late 60's) all had to do "lumpen" (compulsory military training) at 18 unless they had some reason that made them unfit. So I think that a substantial amount of the men above 40 actually would know what a gun sounds like. That was during the cold war though. When it was time for me I just got a form to fill in and I told them I was a crazy loner with no friends and anger management issues. They never even called me in for evaluation . Though from what I hear just ticking "Nej" on the box that asked if I wanted to do military service would have sufficed. Later they put the compulsory part of it on ice because we ain't got no communists to worry about anymore and because it was pretty much voluntary by the end anyway.

You are right (and just to make sure you understand Denmark Norway and Sweden tend to follow each other) There were more people in the army then, but then again we didn't train the same way either. Believe it or not there is a HUGE difference in sound between a gun shot inside a building and one outside (and a huge one between the calibers) my point is that most people in the Scandinavian countries can't hear the difference. By the way both Norway Sweden and Denmark have only had compulsory draft for the male population so just there that is 50%

 

[Steve the Pocket]

What do you bet he really called the cops cuz they were camping his spawn point?

No, it's not what you think.

This is exactly what I thought it would be!

Really? I thought it would be that they were raided because the game is violent and therefore illegal there.

I bet the Activision marketing department are kicking themselves now - that'd make for a pretty sweet advertisement.

No reason they can't still swipe the idea and film a reenactment as a commercial.

No reason some other company can't beat them to it either.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I needed the laugh this gave me today.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

The thing is that even though every male has to go for an evaluation only a minority actually join up. In Denmark there is approximately 5,7 million people ( rough estimate might be 100.000 more or less) and only 4200 (again roughly) joins a year. Mostly volunteers. Only males are forced to go to the evaluation females have to volunteer. couldn't find the official statistic but even though I work proffesionally in the army the chances that a person I meet in the street has even been in the drafted service is roughly less than 1 in 10.

.

You are right (and just to make sure you understand Denmark Norway and Sweden tend to follow each other) There were more people in the army then, but then again we didn't train the same way either. Believe it or not there is a HUGE difference in sound between a gun shot inside a building and one outside (and a huge one between the calibers) my point is that most people in the Scandinavian countries can't hear the difference. By the way both Norway Sweden and Denmark have only had compulsory draft for the male population so just there that is 50%

Oh yeah no argument there. Just thought I'd point out that there is a huge difference between my generation and my parents when it comes to military experience. I'm kinda bummed about that though. I wouldn't have minded doing military training if it was compulsive for real and not just "kinda sorta". But as it was it would have meant taking a year long break in norrland or someplace while everyone I knew moved on with life.

 

[Therarchos]

The thing is that even though every male has to go for an evaluation only a minority actually join up. In Denmark there is approximately 5,7 million people ( rough estimate might be 100.000 more or less) and only 4200 (again roughly) joins a year. Mostly volunteers. Only males are forced to go to the evaluation females have to volunteer. couldn't find the official statistic but even though I work proffesionally in the army the chances that a person I meet in the street has even been in the drafted service is roughly less than 1 in 10.

.

You are right (and just to make sure you understand Denmark Norway and Sweden tend to follow each other) There were more people in the army then, but then again we didn't train the same way either. Believe it or not there is a HUGE difference in sound between a gun shot inside a building and one outside (and a huge one between the calibers) my point is that most people in the Scandinavian countries can't hear the difference. By the way both Norway Sweden and Denmark have only had compulsory draft for the male population so just there that is 50%

Oh yeah no argument there. Just thought I'd point out that there is a huge difference between my generation and my parents when it comes to military experience. I'm kinda bummed about that though. I wouldn't have minded doing military training if it was compulsive for real and not just "kinda sorta". But as it was it would have meant taking a year long break in norrland or someplace while everyone I knew moved on with life.

Yeah it does take a while, but it is well worth it. At least so I think. Although some friends tend to get lost in the process.

 

[SirPlindington]

Eh. Fair enough. I kind of expected to come here to rage, but this seems fairly reasonable.

 

[Radoh]

Okay, what I don't really get is why they felt it was necessary to take them into custody to question 'what even the hell guys', but I guess that no harm was done.

Beyond a busted down door and possibly a damaged controller or something. Still funny though.

 

[Vrach]

I bet the guy just didn't appreciate all the noise coming from the apartment, and rather than having to deal with noisy neighbors over and over again he just reported gunshots. That should make them think twice before cranking up the volume again.

No, it's not what you think.

This is exactly what I thought it would be!

Yeah, so did I.

Add me to the lot. What were we supposed to think, Greg?

And I don't see how games make any different noises than movies and action movies, with plenty of gunfire, life-pleading etc. have been available for a long while.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

Ah you crazy Swedes. Don't ever stop your insane quest for neutrality.

To be honest if that was in America it would be splattered all over the new for the next week and a half as a serious issue.

 

[mad825]

To be fair most people from Scandinavia especially Denmark Norway and Sweden have no clue what an actual gunshot sounds like. So if the kids played it really noisy they might have misunderstood. Still stupid.

They have National Service* on Norway though, so surely as a result most of the country have probably fired a gun at some point in training?

*At least that's the UK equivalent, not sure what the conventional term for it is.

Conscription has been banned in the UK for quite some time (at least 50 or 60 years I think). The closest we have are the Territorial Army and other variations where the civilians are trained as regular soldiers for part-time work. Which is essentially a pop down the base for a chat at night with the odd few weeks of training at the risk going to do tours.

Say what you want to say about us brits, we take the hard way to live a simpler lifestyle ^.^