Research by the Police University College dives behind the figures of the police barometer, implemented every two years. The analyses focus on three themes: shortage of police resources, crimes not reported due to fear of retaliation, and threatening of crime victims and witnesses in the criminal process.
The police barometer survey, which measures the relationship between citizens and the police from different perspectives, was almost completely renewed in 2022. The Police Barometer is now based on a random sample from the Finnish Digital and Population Data Services Agency's database, and it is implemented in cooperation with Statistics Finland. The new implementation method also provides a scientifically reliable basis for further research that expands and deepens the topics of the standard report. The first of these is the Police University College’s publication “The Police and the Public”, which contains three in-depth analyses based on the Police Barometer data.
Shortage of police resources affects trust
The first article in the book states that the shortage of police resources is a genuine concern for citizens. This was already evident in the standard report of the Police Barometer (Police Barometer 2022), in which the shortage of resources was mentioned in the survey’s open responses as the most common reason for the respondent not trusting the police’s operations.
“The new analysis confirms the previous results, as the observations are similar to those in the standard report. The respondents have observed problems caused by the shortage of police resources, particularly in criminal investigation and public order and security activities, but not so much in license services or traffic control,” says one of the book's authors, Matti Vuorensyrjä, researcher at the Police University College.
The second article in the book looks at crimes not reported due to fear of retaliation. Women, young people, financially disadvantaged and other vulnerable persons most often fail to report crimes due to the fear of retaliation. If the person has ever fallen victim to a violent crime before seems to be a particularly important cause behind failing to report a crime.
The third article deals with threats to crime victims and witnesses in criminal proceedings. Threats are reported to the police more likely than average if the subject of the threat trusts the police’s ability to protect people from violence in seriously threatening situations. This is particularly true when the victim of threat is female. However, the threatened person’s perception of the police’s procedural justice had no impact on reporting. Procedural fairness refers to the fairness of the procedure, that is, whether the police treat everyone fairly and equally.
“Threats toward the injured parties and witnesses during the criminal process pose a threat to the law, the principle of legality in the exercise of power and the whole liberal democratic social order based on the law. This phenomenon must be closely monitored and factors that help injured parties and witnesses must be investigated. The Police University College will continue to monitor the phenomenon and research it in depth in the future,” says Vuorensyrjä.
The next study to expand on the Police Barometer data is scheduled for publication in 2025.
Background to the Police Barometer
The book “The Police and the Public” is based on the data collected for the latest police barometer in October–December 2022. The size of the sample for the survey was 8,500 people, of whom nearly 48 per cent responded to the survey.
The Police Barometer is implemented in cooperation between the Ministry of the Interior, the Police University College and Statistics Finland. The police barometer has been published since 1999.
