Veteran officer urges Finland to consider police search zones

Finland should consider temporary security zones where police can search people without suspecting them of a crime, veteran officer Kenneth Eriksson told Yle. He says the measure could help the country avoid problems seen in Sweden.

Eriksson, who has worked in the police for nearly 40 years and specialises in organised crime, said the proposal was last discussed during government negotiations in 2023. Denmark has had the practice since 2004 and Sweden since 2024.

The zones are set up for a limited period. In Sweden, police can establish one for up to two weeks in an area where there is a significant risk of shootings or bomb attacks. Eriksson cited a Swedish search in which police found 20 hand grenades in a 15-year-old boy’s backpack.

“Now we just need to wake politicians up to this reality,” Eriksson said.

Eriksson said violent crime in Sweden dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. He identified failed integration as the root cause of the country’s current problems, saying that separate neighbourhoods were built for immigrants and that inadequate support for language learning and integration allowed a separate society to develop.

He said gang crime has also changed. Hierarchical groups, including motorcycle gangs, have largely given way to looser, decentralised criminal networks that are harder to control and less predictable. Their members, he said, can be allies one day and enemies the next.

Criminal networks use social media to recruit children and young people, Eriksson said. Images of members showing off money and gold, often with rap music in the background, can give young people a distorted impression of criminal life and its rewards. He added that some criminals are becoming public figures, which may further reinforce that image.

Young people already receiving social services are often particularly vulnerable, Eriksson said, though he noted that young people from ordinary families can also be drawn into crime.