Finnish police engage in ethnic profiling despite ban

People are being stopped on the street based solely on their skin colour, said Professor Suvi Keskinen of the University of Helsinki, who has studied ethnic profiling.

The police stop random passers-by to inspect their papers – but it is always a specific group of people, said a press release of the University of Helsinki recently quoting the study results.

The security guard at the shopping centre follows people like these, not others. At airport security, they are the ones flagged for a random spot check, again.

Suvi Keskinen pointed out that according to Finnish law, the police cannot stop people based solely on the colour of their skin or on an ethnic or religious characteristic. However, this does not mean that it does not happen.

Being repeatedly singled out is a humiliating experience can erode trust in the authorities. Targeted people feel that they are labelled as criminals with no fault of their own. They may start to feel that they are not part of society at all.

The police monitor aliens in Finland, and people are often stopped and asked to show their papers, particularly around Helsinki’s Central Railway Station, metro stops and Kaisaniemi Park.

However, the monitoring seems to particularly target people of colour, whether resident aliens or not.

When a crime is suspected, the police may stop a passer-by on very flimsy grounds. This veers into ethnic profiling if skin colour, for example, becomes such a prominent topic of attention that other characteristics, such as height, age or general features are pushed aside.

“Our material features situations where the description of a suspect is ‘young man with dark skin’, but older men have also been stopped based on the colour of their skin. Police officers often state that this is not accepted procedure. However, the situation may be different in practice,” said Keskinen.

According to Keskinen, the most flagrant problems people complained about were found in the behaviour of guards and other security staff.

The groups with the most negative experiences were people of Somali or Middle Eastern descent, or eastern European immigrants, most of whom are Romani.

“Many said that security guards were often rude and treated them roughly, even violently.”

Police undergo longer training than security staff, and this training provides better skills for interacting with different people. Keskinen believes that it is fair to expect more from the police: they are representatives of the Finnish government and exercise public authority, so it is particularly problematic if people feel that they cannot trust the police.

During the research project, an article was published on the rampant racism in a Facebook group for police. Journalist Kati Pietarinen wrote a piece in Long Play, an online publication platform dedicated to investigative journalism, revealing how police officers in the group would share news from fake media and make derogatory comments about Muslims and people of African descent. Some even joked about the attempted suicide of an asylum seeker.

“Some of the officers who were interviewed for the project mentioned the use of racist language, but most of them naturally wanted to portray their professional community in the best possible light,” said Keskinen.

Keskinen was herself an immigrant in the 1980s in Sweden. She was active in the peace movement and in the anti-apartheid movement. That is when the researcher found the basis for her political opinions and interests.

Keskinen previously studied violence experienced by immigrant women, and how the police, social workers and women’s shelters worked with them.

“First of all, we should recognise and admit that this is a problem that exists in Finland,” said Suvi Keskinen.

Equality issues should be covered in the training of police and security staff. Another helpful thing would be the establishment of an organisation that would help people recognise illegal treatment and support them if they want to raise the issue.