Use of force by the police being monitored for frequency, causes and consequences

How often and in what situations is use of force by the police required? Commissioned by the National Police Board, the Police University College has developed a nationwide system for monitoring the use of force by the police. Use of force is monitored and supervised systematically, and the information is used for various purposes such as training. The data collected shows that the police use force in moderation.

The police perform millions of assignments each year. Citizens typically come into contact with the police in connection with license matters (28 per cent), or traffic control or accidents (15 per cent). Sometimes police officers must resort to physical force or other forcible means when apprehending a person. In 2015, the police apprehended almost a hundred thousand (97,566) persons. Forcible means were required in approximately two out of a hundred cases.

Use of force is always registered in the Emergency Response Centre Data System. The recorded entry does not, however, provide any qualitative data on the causes and consequences of the use of force. To collect extensive statistical data on the use of force, the Police University College conducted a project to monitor the use of force in the autumn of 2015. The project resulted in the creation of a new, nationwide information collection system for the police departments, the Police University College and the National Police Board.

“Collecting information on situations requiring the use of force is important to police training and regulations, but it is also of social significance. Police officers earn their authority and citizens’ trust on the basis of their daily professional conduct , which must be open and transparent,” says Chief Inspector Henri Rikander , who conducted the project.

The new system has been used for nationwide monitoring operations on a daily basis since the beginning of 2016. Information is collected both on individual police departments and nationwide. The first analyses will be available in spring 2017.

Exceptional scope of monitoring activities

Police officers used to contact the Emergency Response Centre by police radio or the field command system and report the action taken. Various clerical errors may have significantly distorted the statistics. The project involved identifying and correcting reporting defects. For the data analysis stage, police departments were provided with consistent reporting models.

“An assessment of the use of force and the possible consequences requires that information is collected actively and compiled into reliable statistics. Police officers in charge of recording incidents are in a critical role, which is why the system was built in close cooperation with police departments,” Henri Rikander explains.

With the material generated by the monitoring system, the situations in which police officers are required to use force can be analyzed and training in the use of force can be improved.

“The systematic collection and use of information on this scale is fairly exceptional, even by Nordic standards,” Rikander notes.

Force used in moderation in Finland

Forcible means used by police officers include physical force (holding a person on the ground) and the use of assistive means (such as tasers, police dogs). Police officers may use firearms as a last resort.

The monitoring suggests that police officers in Finland use force in moderation.

“It is difficult to compare the use of force on an international scale, because of the differences between classification and monitoring systems. For instance, the information we collect here in Finland is not collected in other Nordic countries,” Henri Rikander says.

“Material collected in Seattle in the United States shows that the police resorted to the use of force in 2.4 cases out of a hundred when apprehending suspects. According to our data, the figure in Finland is 1.7. However, any comparison with the United States is in many ways difficult, because the way in which forcible means and particularly firearms are used is very different to the Finnish way,” Rikander points out.

Instructions regarding the use of firearms have changed over the years in Finland. The police began to pay more attention to instructing officers after the hostage incident in Mikkeli in 1986. Since then, the use of firearms has reduced dramatically. In 1982–1986, the police fired more than 550 warning shots and 155 targeted shots.

Records of the use of firearms by the police have been kept since 2003. Pointing a gun at someone and firing it both count as use of firearms. In 2003–2013, there were 385 incidents in which firearms were used, and 122 shots were fired. The number of incidents per year involving the use of firearms has varied from 26 to 44.

In the last ten years, seven people have died from bullets fired by the police. The most recent incident took place on 2 October 2016.

Police often subject to violence in the line of duty

Reports on the use of force also provide information on the occupational safety of police officers, such as the type and amount of violence inflicted on police officers.

According to Tuula Leino’s doctoral dissertation of 2013, almost half of police officers experience physical violence at work on a monthly basis. If threats and verbal abuse are included, two out of three police officers experience violent behavior every month.

“Violence against police officers comes in many forms, from being bitten to being run over. Reports on the use of force indicate that, in 25 per cent of incidents, the customer was carrying a knife, a gun, or another instrument,” Rikander explains.

Although being killed in the line of duty is very rare, the most recent incident occurred this year when a police officer died in a fatal shooting in Vihti in June.

The final report of the project on the use of force is available (in Finnish, with an abstract in English) at the Police University College website at polamk.fi/julkaisut .

More information on the Police University College’s research and development projects is available online at polamk.fi/en/rdi .