The Government has submitted a government proposal for legislation on police criminal intelligence to Parliament. The proposal includes an amendment to the Police Act that would introduce provisions on criminal intelligence methods and their use in threat‑informed criminal intelligence. It would also strengthen the police’s secret intelligence collection powers used to prevent and detect individual offences.
Preventing crime is one of the core tasks of the police. The threats posed by crime have become more serious, more diverse and more rapidly evolving, and should therefore be proactively prevented. This requires intelligence collection to be started at an earlier stage than is currently the case. The proposed legislation aims to improve the ability of the police to combat serious gang and organised crime.
The provisions on threat-informed criminal intelligence would be based on the secret intelligence collection methods laid down in the Police Act. However, the conditions for their use would differ from those applied to the prevention and detection of offences.
Threat-informed criminal intelligence to be centralised at the National Bureau of Investigation
The key objective of the proposal is to create a legislative basis for threat-informed criminal intelligence conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation, and in this way improve the capacity to prevent in advance serious crime that threatens the security of individuals or society. Threats posed by serious crime would be defined exhaustively in law.
Criminal intelligence methods would include extended surveillance, covert intelligence collection, technical observation and tracking, collecting data identifying network addresses or terminal equipment, undercover activities, pseudo purchases, controlled deliveries and controlled use of covert human intelligence sources. The proposal does not include provisions on intelligence collection targeting confidential communications or activities taking place in premises covered by the right to respect for home and used for permanent residence.
Use of criminal intelligence would be effectively controlled
The Intelligence Ombudsman would be responsible for external oversight of the legality of the use of threat-informed criminal intelligence powers proposed for the National Bureau of Investigation. The National Bureau of Investigation would be required to provide the Intelligence Ombudsman with information on any request, authorisation or decision concerning a criminal intelligence method.
According to the proposal, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service and the military intelligence authorities must coordinate their intelligence activities. This would prevent tactical and technical methods and plans used in secret intelligence collection from being revealed and ensure that authorities perform their duties appropriately. Under certain conditions, the targets of criminal intelligence methods would have to be informed of their use.
Access to open sources to become easier
The proposal would also allow the use of automated web crawlers to search for and store information from open sources. Using automated web crawlers, the police could collect information from, for example, sites in a public information network that sell illegal weapons or items or are intended for other serious criminal activities.
The government proposal is related to the budget proposal for 2027. The proposed acts are scheduled to enter into force on 1 June 2027.
