Police in Sweden are looking across the waters of the Øresund to a successful Danish initiative as they seek to combat rising number of home burglaries in the southern region of Scania.

“We have the same problem of roving criminal gangs that they do in Copenhagen and Denmark,” Stefan Bengtsson, the head of the new unit, told Denmark’s Frederiksborg Amts Avis. “Malmö and Helsingborg attract the same type of criminals that co-operate with each other and work on both sides of the Øresund.”

Bengtsson said that he believed adopting the methods employed by Denmark’s Task Force Indbrud, which involve thorough investigations of a gang’s structure before moving in to break up crime rings will be successful in Sweden.

“We must dig deeper than traditional investigative methods and find the roots of these organised burglary outfits,” Bengtsson said. “The bulk of the work must be done before we attempt to make arrests.”

Among the successes credited to the Danish force is the break up up a Lithuanian bike theft ring in September.

The new Swedish unit will work with its Danish counterpart. Karl-Erik Agerbo, leader of the Danish squad, said that the two working together will be a boon for regional crime fighting.

“We have a lot of cases where the criminals work both sides of the sound,” said Agerbo. “Some who commit break-ins on our side of the Øresund do the same on the Swedish side and they move the stolen goods back and forth.”

Agerbo said that the area’s good infrastructure and bridges and ferries with very few check points makes it easy for organised criminals to cross back and forth between the two countries.

“You could say that the Copenhagen and northern Zealand area have more in common with Sweden than it does with Jutland,” said Agerbo.