1. VIRTUAL COMMUNITY POLICING Sergeant Marko Forss Helsinki Police Department Virtual Community Policing Group 2011

2. 12.12.09 Virtual Community Policing Police profile -fobba- started 10.9.2008 on IRC-Galleria and soon after that on Messenger too Police profiles ^mane^ and [--jutta--] started in may 2009 on IRC- Galleria and Messenger Police profiles on Facebook started in January 2010 and group also answers to questions in Suomen poliisi fanclubs (started in August 2009) discussion forum Group investigates all school related crimes in Police Districts area and patrols once a month outdoors doing alcohol surveillance amongst youth New virtual community police officers started in May 2011

4. www.poliisi.fi/nettipoliisi

5. 12.12.09 Finnish Police in Social Media Suomen poliisi –fanclub (08/2009, over 140 000 fans) YouTube channel suomenpoliisi (10/2009) Poliisista päivää -blogs Twitter 2011 Oulu Police Departments jepari –community in IRC-Galleria NBI: www.poliisi.fi/nettivinkki Security Police

6. Why Police is Visibly Online?  Lowers the level to contact the police and talk about personal things  Preventive police work: Inform about laws and answer to questions  Creates a feel of security on internet  Profiles are there not to limit the freedom of speech or to moderate the sites but profiles will intervene to criminal acts if it’s necessary (bullying, sexual crimes etc) The key for succesfull work is bilateral and confidental low treshold communication

7. Statistics 2010 IRC-Galleria About 16000 messages in 2010 Facebook About 1000 messages to inbox in 2010 Messenger Used almost every day Email 400 answered emails In addition to answered messages 139 acts (only 7 months/2010) that contained: 22 criminal reports (17 sex-related crimes) 28 “verbal warnings” (bullying) 70 tips and additional information to criminal reports 9 reports to child welfare (suicidal, depressed etc)

8.  1100 child sexual abuse cases in whole Finland 2010 o About 150 were internet related o 10-20% of those internet related child sexual abuses were reported trough Virtual Community Policing Group o Extraordinary that young plaintiffs contact directly the police  Possibility to act with police profiles acutely to bullying with “verbal” warnings o Children have someone online to “protect” them  Possibility to react fast to social media related issues Best Results In Police Work

9. Finally… Internet doesn’t make you stupid, it only allows to show your own stupidity to many people‏ THANK YOU! marko.forss@poliisi.fi