“We did not want a security guard 2.0” : IMPLEMENTING COMMUNITY WARDENS AS A STEP IN THE MUNICIPAL CRIME PREVENTATIVE AND FEAR OF CRIME REDUCING WORK IN VELLINGE AND TRELLEBORG

Traditionally in Sweden the crime preventative and fear of crime reducing work has fallen on the police. However, in 2019 the Swedish government appointed an inquiry where an investigator is to submit a proposal regarding how the municipalities in Sweden can have a legislated responsibility for crime preventative work. The proposal is to cover formulations of what the responsibility would be as well as what actors should carry this responsibility. The present study examined a municipal crime preventative and fear of crime reducing initiative that has grown more popular in Sweden: community wardens. The aim of the present study was to investigate what the arguments for the implementations were as well as how these arguments turned out practically. The present study uses a qualitative thematic analysis to study the implementation of community wardens in two Swedish municipalities – Vellinge and Trelleborg. The results show that even though the arguments for and mission of the community wardens in both municipalities are very similar there are differences in implementation giving the community wardens different approaches. In Vellinge there is a focus on building relationships and working proactively providing an enhanced informal social control. Whereas in Trelleborg there is greater focus on monitoring municipal properties enhancing the formal control in the municipality. Furthermore, there seem to be risks of intruding or overlapping with other actors when implementing community wardens.