Today, the police will release national statistics for the first half of the year. One of the most visible changes in the statistics of the Helsinki Police Department concerns sexual offences, which have considerably increased compared to the same period last year (+45%). There has been an increase in rapes, the sexual exploitation of children, and in sexual harassment.
“The police have been more effective in proactively detecting cases of sexual violence in Helsinki this year, and this is reflected in the statistics. For example, early in the year they arrested a man suspected of several dozen sexual offences,” explains Detective Superintendent Juhani Vuorisalo , referring to the Helsinki Police Department’s violent crime investigations.
The statistics can be affected by a single major case. Vuorisalo refers to a case in which a Helsinki man is suspected of the sexual abuse of more than ten boys under the age of 16. This single case shows as a statistical spike in the sexual abuse of children.
“Sexual crimes have also been widely discussed in public and given extensive publicity. This has helped to lower the threshold for reporting offences such as sexual harassment, more of which have thereby come to the attention of the police. The number of sexual offences has not, therefore, necessarily increased, but more have been notified to the police,” Vuorisalo concludes.
There is also an increase in narcotics offences compared to last year (+2.3%).
“Over the last year, the police have carried out a number of theme-based, special control operations on narcotics-related issues in key locations in Helsinki. The investigation of narcotics offences is very much about active police detection, i.e., when the police have resources for the detection of such offences, it shows in the statistics,” says Lasse Jortikka , Detective Chief Inspector of the Helsinki Police Department's narcotics offence investigations.
Fraud, on the other hand, has declined (-19%). This fall is explained by the fact that the police have targeted coercive measures, particularly at suspects who have been operating on the Internet. Fraud tends to be a serial crime, i.e., when the police arrest a few active perpetrators, many crimes are left uncommitted.
Traffic offences have steadily increased in Helsinki (+7.4%).
“The spikes in traffic offences are largely explained by the intensification of traffic monitoring in Helsinki by the LiikennePro team dedicated to traffic surveillance. This team has been able to remove more drunk drivers from the traffic flow and to detect various other types of traffic offences and violations,” explains Chief Inspector Pasi Tuominen with regard to traffic monitoring operations.
In general, 4,057 fewer crimes were recorded in the area of the Helsinki Police Department this year (-10.73%) than in January–March last year.
"There are certainly many reasons for this, but one concrete reason may be that Helsinki residents have reported fewer crimes to the police. If you fall victim to a crime, you should contact the police quickly by calling the Emergency Response Centre 112 or making a crime report, either at the police station in Pasila or on the police force’s website. This will enable us to begin searching for the suspect as soon as possible, points out Police Chief Heikki Kopperoinen .
Statistics_Helsinki Police Department_June 2018 pdf, 95,8 kB
Percentage of Crimes committed by foreign nationals_Helsinki Police Department_June 2018 pdf, 91,3 kB
