Police year 2016: The number of crimes remained at the same level – online frauds continued to increase

In 2016, the total number or crimes reported to the police was 807,433. This number has remained, more or less, unchanged from the year 2015. Last year, 0.2 per cent more crimes were reported, than in the previous year. The number of crimes increased by 1,650 crimes.

The operational readiness times, in emergency assignments, remained almost at the previous year's level. In 2016, the operational readiness time, in the most urgent or Category A assignments, was 9.4 minutes. The total number of police assignments increased by somewhat under one per cent. The police had around 6,400 more emergency assignments, than in the previous year.

National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen considers this even trend to be rather positive.

"As a whole, the police managed last year well. The number of asylum seekers continued to be high during the start of the year, but petered out, towards the end of the year. This has had a clear impact on police work. It did not have a significant impact on the number of emergency assignments, but it has changed their nature. The end of the year was coloured by assignments related to the return of asylum seekers whose applications were rejected. We expect the number of these assignments to increase, during the current year," Kolehmainen says.

Although the number of property crimes, as a whole, decreased slightly, the number of frauds, particularly payment frauds committed on the Internet, has continued to increase.

"Online fraud can best be prevented in advance, in which the online shoppers, themselves, play the key role," National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen advises.

The victims of online fraud rarely get their money back

The total number of property crimes reported to the police decreased by just over three per cent, compared to 2015. The largest increase was seen in robberies, with an increase of 9.5 per cent, or 150 crimes.

Fraud crimes showed an increase of almost 8 per cent, or around 2,900 crimes. Payment frauds and petty payment frauds, particularly those committed on the Internet, have seen a large increase. In 2015, they totalled 5,574, while their number had increased to 8,782 last year.

The growth is related to such things as card owners entering their card information on fraudulent Internet sites advertising, for example, mobile phones for one euro.

"A typical form of an online fraud crime is someone offering property that the seller does not have for sale. The seller is usually in a hurry to get the money for the product into their account and claims that there are other buyers lined up for the product or asks that the money be paid to the account of a third person or to a foreign account, a via money transfer," Kolehmainen says.

Most online frauds, committed in Finland, can be solved during the investigation. However, the money can rarely be retrieved from the criminals, as usually, they have already spent the proceeds of the crime or are impecunious. With payment frauds, where the crime is committed abroad and the consequences are noticed in Finland, solving the crime is more difficult.

Card safety limits decrease the risk of misuse

Online frauds are best prevented in advance. You should not enter your personal details or card information on the Web or into different e-mail queries. Card safety limits increase the safety of card use and decrease the risk of misuse.

According to the police, a card is a safe means of payment online when it is used for trustworthy online stores, over a secure connection. You can identify this from the WWW address of the page on which you enter your card information being in the format https://.

Immobilisers have decreased the number of thefts of motor vehicles for temporary use

The number of thefts of motor vehicles for temporary use continued to decrease by over ten per cent.

"This trend is largely caused by the renewal of the car stock. Since 1998, all new cars have been equipped with immobilisers, as have some earlier models," Kolehmainen assesses.

The number of rape crimes continued to increase

In 2016, the number of rape crimes reported to the police exceeded 11 per cent, or 117 crimes more than in 2015. The total number of sexual offences increased by almost 13 per cent.

In the case of sex offences, in which the name of the suspect was known to the police, the number of cases in which the suspect was a foreign national increased by 273 crimes. Correspondingly, the number of foreign injured parties increased by 105. In the statistics, sex offences include crimes such as rapes and sexual harassments.

In 2015, there were 58 cases of sexual harassment in which the suspects were foreign national, while last year, there were 147. The corresponding numbers for Finnish citizens were 122 in 2015 and 167 last year. The number of rapes reported to the police, in which the suspect was a foreign national, increased by more than 41.9 per cent (93 offences).

Traffic behaviour has improved – the number of traffic fatalities and injuries has decreased

The total number of traffic violations reported to and uncovered by the police has decreased compared to the previous year.

"Traffic behaviour has seen a positive development. This is also indicated by the clear decrease in the numbers of traffic fatalities and injuries having clearly decreased, compared to the previous year," Kolehmainen says.

Automatic surveillance output has increased considerably from the previous year, with an increase in equipment and improved efficiency in its use. The majority of the growth in automatic surveillance output has been from written notices.

Implementation of deportation decisions increased the workload of the police

Last year, asylum seekers were injured parties in crimes 1,889 times and suspects 2,664 times. Cases where an asylum seeker was the injured party included assaults, illegal threats, petty assaults, thefts and petty thefts.

Correspondingly, cases where an asylum seeker was the subject were most often assaults, petty thefts, petty assaults, illegal threats, thefts, and arranging illegal immigration.

Last year, 5,651 asylum seekers came to Finland, while the number of applicants, in 2015, was over 32,000. Last year, the police participated in the implementation of over 6,000 deportation decisions. Asylum seekers were returned to over 100 different countries.

The number of illegal aliens caught in Finland is estimated to grow with the increase in the number of asylum seekers whose applications are rejected. In 2016, the number of illegal aliens caught in Finland was, however, the lowest of the decade. In 2016, a total of 2,314 illegal aliens were caught in Finland, while their number, in so-called normal years, has hovered around 3,000.

Passports have been applied for to replace expired ones and the use of electronic services has become more common

As of the start of 2016, responsibility for driving licence matters was transferred from the police to the Finnish Transport Safety Agency and the responsibility for conducting concise security clearances was transferred to the Finnish Security Intelligence Service. As a result of these changes, the total volume of licence matters processed by the police decreased by around 20 per cent, from the previous year.

There has been growth in travel document matters: the numbers of passport and identity card matters have increased by almost ten per cent, from the previous year. This is due to the fact that the last remaining passports, issued for a ten-year period, expired in 2016.

In 2016, approximately 530,000 electronic passport applications were submitted, which represents slightly more than 60 per cent of all passport applications. The share of electronic passport applications increased around 27 percentage points, compared to 2015.

In 2016, around 157,000 identity card applications were submitted, of which around 57,000 were submitted electronically. The electronic services expanded to also cover fundraising permits and some of the security sector licences. The use of electronic services in security sector licence matters, in particular, has seen a lively start: in 2016, around 1,400 licence applications were submitted electronically.

The number of police officers continues to fall

In 2016, the total number of police personnel, measured in person-work years, fell by two per cent, or 200, from the previous year. Total number of personnel was 9,807.

The number of police officers decreased by approximately as much in proportion, or by somewhat over 140 person-work years. The number of police officers measured in person-work years was 7,219. The decreases in the numbers of the overall personnel and police officers are result of austerity measures targeting the police, caused by the State's tight financial situation.

Police statistics for 2016 pdf, 152,6 kB

Police statistics for 2016, share of foreign nationals pdf, 153,9 kB

Police statistics for 2016, online frauds pdf, 136,7 kB

Police statistics for 2016, asylum seekers pdf, 85,2 kB