Government proposal for legislation on police criminal intelligence sent out for comments

The Ministry of the Interior has today sent out for comments a draft government proposal for legislation on police criminal intelligence. The reform would enable the use of criminal intelligence methods in the fight against serious crime on a threat-informed basis. The deadline for submitting comments is 16 April 2026.

Preventing crime is one of the core tasks of the police. The aim of the proposal is to intensify the fight against serious crime and enable threat-informed intervention in, among other things, serious gang crime and organised crime. The goal of threat-informed criminal intelligence is to prevent threats of serious crime and ultimately offences. A further goal is to prevent the most harmful criminal phenomena from entering Finland.

As the operating environment changes, 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 provisions would be methodologically based on the secret intelligence collection methods already set out in the Police Act for the prevention of crime, but the conditions for their use would be regulated on a threat-informed basis. The provisions would enable secret intelligence collection before a criminal project has progressed to an identified offence in situations where serious crime would pose a serious threat to the safety and security of an individual or society. Current powers are strongly tied to the prevention of individual offences, and anticipation is only possible with very short notice before a serious offence occurs. The proposal would not, however, enable the collection of intelligence concerning confidential communications or covered by the right to domestic privacy.

Criminal intelligence would be used mainly to fight gang and organised crime

The main focus of criminal intelligence would be on organised crime, including more loosely organised criminal networks and the most serious forms of street gang crime. Criminal intelligence methods could be targeted at individuals or identified groups who can be presumed to be involved in seriously threatening criminal activity. In practice, criminal intelligence could be targeted at persons operating and moving in criminal circles who belong to criminal organisations or are involved in ongoing criminal projects. According to estimates, a maximum of 200–300 people per year would be targeted by threat-informed criminal intelligence methods, fewer in the start-up phase.

The police would be able to use information obtained through criminal intelligence methods to combat threats of serious crime, prevent crime and target police action. The use of information obtained through criminal intelligence methods to investigate an offence, for example as evidence in a criminal case, would be significantly restricted for reasons of legal protection. Information obtained through criminal intelligence methods could, under certain conditions, also be disclosed to other public authorities. In addition, such information could always be used as evidence in support of innocence.

Use of criminal intelligence would be effectively controlled

The proposal aims to extend the scope of the Act on the Oversight of Intelligence Activities so that the Intelligence Ombudsman would in future also carry out legality oversight of the threat-informed criminal intelligence of the police. The police would have to keep the Intelligence Ombudsman informed of the decisions and use of criminal intelligence methods. This oversight would safeguard the legal protection of persons targeted by criminal intelligence. 

Provisions on the decision-making levels of criminal intelligence methods would mainly correspond to the current provisions of the Police Act.  The Helsinki District Court would decide centrally on the use of the methods that most strongly intrude on protection of privacy. 

Open source intelligence collection to be reformed

Under the proposal, provisions would be established to enable the police to use automated intelligence collection systems called web crawlers for storing information from open sources. Using automated web crawlers, the police would be able to collect intelligence more comprehensively from, for example, a website that exclusively or mainly engages in criminal activity, such as trade in illegal items and substances.  

The proposed powers for open source intelligence collection would not allow mass or untargeted intelligence collection; they would require targeting of intelligence collection at an identified open source.

The legislative amendments are scheduled to enter into force on 1 June 2027. 

Inquiries:
Thursday 19 February: Heidi Aliranta, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Legislative Affairs, tel. +358 295 488 367, [email protected]
Friday 20 February: Markus Terenius, Assistant Police Director, tel. +358 295 486 840, [email protected]