a visit by a swedish cop

We usually ¨leave our boat hostel at 7am in the morning but yesterday we had to wake up earlier and leave the hostel at 6.25am so as to meet the police officer as per the meeting time fixed at 8.15am. The officer introduced himself as john and said that he was 28 year old. He said he is a native columbian but came to Sweden at the age of ten. Initially he was a basket coach but he wanted to be a role model to the immigrants in Sweden so he decided to be a police officer.The police officer basically explained the way local police stations operate in Sweden. Every police officer has a pepper spray, a baton and a gun which they are supposed to have only for the purpose of self defense. he said that he preferred using the pepper spray the most as it causes temporary pain. the baton or gun can inflict more pain then the pepper spray. The local police uniform in black in colour. When questioned about the crimes happening in Sweden he said that there are all kinds of crimes happening but mostly it is overspeeding that causes a problem. He said that rape and murder are not frequent crimes and most of the murder cases found are murders of people involved in the world of crime. He also mentioned that dealing with domestic crime is on the priority list of Swedish police. There are special homes provided for women who complain against domestic violence. These places are confidential places as they do not want the husbands to seek for the wives before the case has been dealt with. He also talked about the treatment given to the prisoners. they are kept in seperate rooms with proper food, given good change of cothes, required warm clothes, have doctors to treat them if they have some illness for instance diabetes. The Swedish law system does not grant bail to any prisoner what so ever the crime may be. there are about eight police stations in stockholm. He said that the media plays a big role in influencing the public opinion of police officers so they try to get in the least number of controversies.
All of us found the talk very interesting and though we were initially grumbling as we had to wake up early it was worth it!!