According to information from the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation, the police stopped Finnish Roma in Helsinki in 2013-2017 and systematically wrote information about Roma movements, the vehicles used by Roma and the groups in which they moved in the police blog. In the same context, entries were also made, for example, for knives or other weapons found. About 3,000 Roma live in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, and about 1,000 police records were collected over four years.
The police activities were related to the internal guidelines issued by the Helsinki Police Department in autumn 2013. It ordered police patrols to intervene at a low threshold for all violations detected during surveillance and any other findings. According to Yle's information, the instruction was interpreted in the field so that Roma were stopped without legal grounds and their information was taken up.
Roma organizations and the police have sought to build co-operation in recent years, and this keeping of the police logbook can be seen as ethnic profiling. The National Police Board of Finland has launched a study on the operations of the Helsinki Police Department.
Link: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11920475?fbclid=IwAR2yNhqQc96f8pd9vMn0SRijVaCc_sKAgHvwYuuPHkKHNgW
