Crime prevention in villages, schools and increasingly online

The Finnish police have earned the trust and respect of citizens through their actions. This is backed up by various surveys on trust in authorities and institutions. The Finnish police also do well in international comparisons in terms of training and competence. Police operations are strongly characterised by fairness and various governance principles, which are well implemented in Finnish policing. Sometimes, of course, things do go wrong and mistakes are made, but we must learn from them. However, we need to keep in mind that each year the police deal with more than 1,100,000 emergency calls, around 800,000 police reports, including traffic matters, and more than 1,000,000 licencing matters. It would be something of a miracle if all of the more than 3,000,000 tasks were dealt with to perfection in an imperfect world.  

I dare say that trust and respect for the police have been built up over the decades by the fact that ordinary uniformed police officers did practical work and were present face to face and approachable. Over the years there have been village, market, block, neighbourhood, school, youth and, more recently, internet police. Some of the names are official, others are popular, but it is local personalities and the images they create, the fun and good stories and chance that have earned the trust in today's police. 

Police operate covertly and visibly in compliance with the law 

Officially, police prevention work is laid down in section 1 of the Police Act, which sets out provisions on police duties, among others, as follows. “The duty of the police is to secure the rule of law; maintain public order and security; prevent, detect and investigate crimes; and submit cases to prosecutors for consideration of charges. The police work in cooperation with other public authorities and with communities and residents in order to maintain security, and they engage in international cooperation pertaining to their duties." 

The Act requires the matters mentioned, such as prevention and cooperation. These are things that can be done to be visible and present, and to work together, so that trust can grow, as long as operations are fair and proper. 

Today's world - things and people - is increasingly online. Since the police need to be where people are, the police are also online. The police operate visibly, but also invisibly. Just as traffic surveillance is visible, but also covert. A radar can be anywhere, not just in speed cameras. Crime has also gone online, to be prevented and exposed wherever criminals move and lurk - until they are caught, and through investigation end up in the dock and convicted. 

The prevention operations of the police have changed and are increasingly becoming like those provided for in chapter 5 of the Police Act. This chapter addresses covert means of obtaining information. It is about telecommunications interception, technical surveillance, technical surveillance of a device, pseudo purchases, covert human intelligence services - in general, things that are done covertly from their targets. Some people might think whether the police can or should target these mysterious covert means at anyone - even at you? Well, they can't, and they mustn't, and they won't. There are plenty of shady online dealings and criminal activity so that ordinary citizens transacting properly online have no cause for concern.  

Police ask for tip-offs on shady online dealings 

The police are increasingly present online. Maybe not so much face to face, but accessible, nevertheless. The police are looking for approaches and tip-offs from the public on shady online dealings, for which they need help from society as a whole, including you. After all, the online world is something that is also covered by article 1 of the Police Act: "Work in cooperation with other public authorities and with communities and residents." 

Leave an online tip-off to the police about suspicious activity you observe online: poliisi.fi/en/net-tip. There are several ways to submit crime-related tip-offs to the police, including by net and email, in addition to the online link. You can find all police stations on the poliisi.fi/en/leave-a-tip website.  

Pekka Heikkinen 
Chief Superintendent