National Bureau of Investigation (Finland)
|
Keskusrikospoliisi Centralkriminalpolisen | |
|
Emblem of the Police of Finland | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1955 |
| Headquarters | Jokiniemenkuja 4, Vantaa |
| Employees | about 695[1] |
| Minister responsible |
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| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Ministry of the Interior National Police Board |
| Website | www.keskusrikospoliisi.fi |
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) (Finnish: Keskusrikospoliisi (KRP), Swedish: Centralkriminalpolisen (CKP)), headquartered in the city of Vantaa since 1994, is a nationwide division of the Police of Finland.
Mission
NBI fights international, organised, professional, financial and other serious crime, investigates offences, provides expert services and develops methods for crime fighting and criminal investigation. The NBI is also responsible for taking measures provided in the Act on Detecting and Preventing Money Laundering (503/2008) and the Acts on Freezing Assets to Combat Terrorism (325/2013).
In addition to the offences the NBI has exposed, it investigates also the following:
- other offences that come to the Bureau's attention and particularly, criminal cases of major importance to society or that have precedent character - e.g. corruption, securities, money laundering, environment, IT and cyber crime;
- homicides and attempted homicides with likely connections to organised crime, unless otherwise agreed with the local police;
- terrorist offences, unless otherwise agreed with the Finnish Security Intelligence Service; and
- cases delegated by the National Police Board.
When necessary, the NBI supports the local police in the first steps of homicide investigations and in coordination of preliminary actions of major cybercrime investigations.
The NBI takes part in major disaster investigations through the Finnish Disaster Victim Identification Team (DVI).
The NBI is in charge of cooperation in the field of PCB (Police Customs Border) criminal intelligence in line with the cooperation agreement made between the Police, Customs and the Border Guard. The activities are organised around the National PCB Criminal Intelligence Centre supported by the PCB Intelligence Units specialised in air traffic, sea traffic and cross-border traffic.
The NBI serves as the national authority in international police cooperation and hosts the national centres of Interpol, Europol and Schengen cooperation.
The NBI makes forensic analyses, develops and harmonises analytical methods. The Bureau also develops, tests and approves forensic investigation methods, equipment, devices and materials introduced to the police force.[2]
Organisation
The organisation is divided into Administration, Criminal Investigation, Criminal Intelligence and Forensic Laboratory.[3] The NBI also has field offices in Tampere, Turku, Maarianhamina, Joensuu, Oulu and Rovaniemi.[4]
Most of the Bureau's personnel serve as police officers (60%). Police officers serve mainly in investigative and intelligence duties. Civilian staff include experts like chemists, laboratory assistants, clerks, engineers and linguists.[1]
The NBI headquarters also houses the Crime Museum. The Museum holds about 6000 pieces of criminal history including tools used in crimes, objects related to punishment, documents and photos. Most of the collections are from the 20th century. The Museum is not open to the public.[5]
News coverage and releases
In July 2015 it was reported that the NBI was negotiating with Italian company Hacking Team to purchase encryption evasion and surveillance tools usually employed by law enforcement and intelligence services.[6][7]
In June 2015 the NBI was in the process of investigating a large scale fraud case in which a malware program was used to transfer about 900 000 euros from Finnish citizens and companies to offenders abroad. The investigation was being conducted by a joint investigation team consisting of among others Austrian, Belgian and Dutch law enforcement.[8]
In April 2015 a new unit targeting cyber crime was established at the Bureau's headquarters. The unit has a staff of 45 and will work in close cooperation with Europol. United State's law enforcement will also be an important partner since companies like Google and Facebook are on United States soil. The unit's chief named focused cyber attacks as Finland's greatest threat.[9]
During 2014 the NBI received 23 062 reports of money laundering of which 11 were reported to be connected to terrorism. In continuative investigations the Bureau confiscated 11,5 million euros of criminal origin and exposed 44 criminal activity sets.[10]
On 17 December 2015 the Deputy Chief Tero Kurenmaa commented that NBI is browsing through large amount of details in relation the presumed war crimes conducted outside of Finland. Earlier NBI sued two asylum seekers for 11 cases of murder, and he did not exclude further cases to surface. He noted, that "there are so many different groups of people", referring to Shia, Sunni and Afgans. Furthermore he noted, that essential motive is to collect findings into a decision support system, to form daily situational picture. He did not further detail on that system and the privileges attached to it [11]
On the same day 17 December 2015 NBI reportedly announced about an investigation in relation to an application collecting personal data from Facebook. They have been noted to have been lead to White Russian developers as origin for the software to combine public Facebook data to other sources. However they did not critically reflect their own functions (eg.[12]) doing similar reporting, nor provided any ground for nationalistic notion provided.[13]
Disputes
NBI became under heavy public pressure after it was found that it had collected largely unauthentic and irrelevant information into an internal EPRI database.[14][15] As a result thousands completely innocent persons were tied into criminal investigations, between 2009-2014 total of 10000 people were reported to have been recorded into the database without legitimate grounds or court decision.[15] In public it was noted, that even Russian president Vladimir Putin had a record in the registry. Since, court cases have been run to determine that the database was lacking proper controls and was vulnerable for unauthorized use.[16] To the day NBI has not apologized anyone else than Putin, or provided any compensation for people whose personal data were compromised and often misused. In many cases having a record in the database could have caused financial losses and social exclusion for the subject, who had no means to verify, be aware of let alone correct such markings.[15]
References
- 1 2 Keskusrikospoliisin organisaatio National Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 11.7.2015.
- ↑ NBI Mission National Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 11.7.2015.
- ↑ NBI Organization National Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 11.7.2015.
- ↑ Contact information National Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 11.7.2015.
- ↑ Rikosmuseo National Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 11.7.2015.
- ↑ Vuoto: Krp:lle tarjottiin pahamaineista verkkovakoilua Helsingin Sanomat. 7.7.2015.
- ↑ Hacking Team Emails Expose Proposed Death Squad Deal, Secret U.K. Sales Push and Much More The Intercept, 2015
- ↑ Pankkitunnusten kalastelulla toteutetun kansainvälisen rikoskokonaisuuden tutkinnan ensimmäinen vaihe valmistunut Suomessa National Bureau of Investigation. 25.6.2015.
- ↑ Poliisin uusi yksikkö torjuu nyt kyber-rikoksia – päällikkö pelkää kohdistettuja verkkohyökkäyksiä Helsingin Sanomat. 17.4.2015.
- ↑ Rahanpesuepäilyissä muutamia terrorismin rahoitusepäilyjä vuonna 2014 National Bureau of Investigation. 13.4.2015.
- ↑ http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2015121720846314_uu.shtml
- ↑ http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/a1449631088213
- ↑ http://www.iltasanomat.fi/kotimaa/art-1450328147047.html
- ↑ http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/a1365958907096
- 1 2 3 http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2015121020803847_uu.shtml
- ↑ http://yle.fi/uutiset/syyttaja_valvonta_taysin_laiminlyoty_epri-rekisterissa__syytetyt_vaarat_miehet_karajilla/8514892