Police Barometer

The Police Barometer is a survey that examines citizens’ perceptions of police operations and the internal security situation in Finland. The survey, commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior, has been implemented since 1999 at two-year intervals.

For each survey, 8,500 Finns aged 15−79, living in mainland Finland, are chosen by way of stratified random sampling. Citizens are asked about their views on the police and the success of police services. In addition, they are asked to evaluate their personal experiences of security and crime, particularly about falling victim to crime and crime reports.

The police barometer survey provides citizens and the police with information that would be difficult to obtain by other means. The information can be used to supplement the situational picture of crime, provided by crime statistics and other incident data. The results of the survey can also be used to assess the extent of hidden crime.

The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the coordination and financing of the project. The Police University College is responsible for planning the survey together with the Ministry of the Interior and Statistics Finland. In addition, the Police University College analyzes and reports the results of the survey and conducts further scientific research using the accumulated data. Statistics Finland is responsible for collecting data and calculating the weighting factors of the data. The data are archived in the Finnish Social Science Data Archive, where they are available for use in further scientific research and for teaching purposes.

Timescale: regular monitoring

Funding: Ministry of the Interior, budget funding

Contact person at the Police University College: Researcher Matti Vuorensyrjä. Email in the format [email protected].