Board negotiations | Expert: Police “inspection zones” would conflict with the ban on ethnic profiling

In inspection zones according to the Danish model, the police could, for example, carry out personal checks without suspicion of a crime.

of Denmark the so-called inspection zones according to the model have been presented in government negotiations as one way to tackle gang crime. Zones refer to areas where the police may use certain coercive measures, such as personal checks and searches, without suspicion of a crime. The police could therefore stop people somewhat randomly and check them and their cars for weapons, for example.

Special expert of the Equality Commissioner Mikko Joronen finds the idea problematic.

“If the police are given the authority to use coercive means without suspicion of crime, then yes, it is problematic. Police measures cannot be based on the mere presence of a person, but on the fact that the person is suspected of having done or is doing something criminal,” Joronen tells STT.

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According to Jorone, the essential question is how a possible law could be written in such a way that it would not put people in an unequal position or be in conflict with the ban on ethnic profiling.

“Currently, the police have clear instructions that ethnic profiling is prohibited in all police activities. Inspection zones would be completely inconsistent with existing legislation and the police’s own instructions. In other words, it would not be possible to ensure that ethnic profiling does not take place.”

Joronen points out that the proposal could be on a collision course with the constitution as well.

Inspection zones have been in Denmark since 2004 and their implementation is being investigated in Sweden, where gang feuds have led to uncontrolled violence, such as murders and explosions.

In Finland, the police have identified about ten street gangs, mainly in the capital region. According to the police, around a hundred young men join street gangs, and they are mostly first- or second-generation immigrants. The police have said that Finland is not, so to speak, in the way of Sweden when it comes to the gang situation. As far as we know, there have been no homicides related to street gangs in Finland, and the police say they have been able to break the cycle of revenge that had started.

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In Denmark, where inspection zones have been in use for almost twenty years, there have been observations of control distortion and ethnic profiling. Terrestrial human rights institute according to a report that examined ethnic profiling published at the end of last year, the risk of being innocently suspected of a crime is 27 percent higher for first-generation immigrants than for the general population. For second-generation immigrants, the figure is 45 percent.

The report examined 2.5 million criminal charges and 27,000 arrests between 2009 and 2019.

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