The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) ( fi, Keskusrikospoliisi (KRP), sv, Centralkriminalpolisen (CKP), ) is a national law enforcement agency of the Finnish Police and the principal criminal investigation and criminal intelligence organization of

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The Bureau's main tasks are to counter and investigate

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

, provide expert services, and develop methods for

criminal investigation Criminal investigation is an applied science that involves the study of facts that are then used to inform criminal trials. A complete criminal investigation can include searching, interviews, interrogations, evidence collection and preservat ...

. NBI is also responsible for

financial intelligence Financial intelligence (FININT) is the gathering of information about the financial affairs of entities of interest, to understand their nature and capabilities, and predict their intentions. Generally the term applies in the context of law enfo ...

(FININT), such as preventing money laundering and

terrorism financing Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors. Most countries have implemented measures to counter terrorism financing (CTF) often as part of their money laundering la ...

. NBI headquarters has been situated in the city of

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa is the fourth most populated city in Finland ...

within the

Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

since 1994 with field offices in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

, Mariehamn,

Joensuu Joensuu (; krl, Jovensuu; ) is a city and municipality in North Karelia, Finland, located on the northern shore of Lake Pyhäselkä (northern part of Lake Saimaa) at the mouth of the Pielinen River (''Pielisjoki''). It was founded in 1848. The ...

, Oulu and

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; sme, Roavvenjárga ; smn, Ruávinjargâ; sms, Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Per� ...

. It is subordinate to the National Police Board under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry.

History

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was established on 30 December 1954 upon ratification of Act 510/1954 and became operational in 1955 by merging the Uusimaa Province Crime Police Centre ( fi, Uudenmaan läänin rikospoliisikeskus) and the Crime Research Centre ( fi, Rikostutkimuskeskus). Previously, the Crime Police Centre had been handling nationwide investigations while the Crime Research Centre was in charge of intelligence and forensic analyses. Kosti Vasa was appointed NBI's first Director and served as such until retiring in 1965. In the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, NBI's Finnish Disaster Victim Identification Team (DVI) was dispatched to identify Finnish victims in Thailand. 173 out of the 178 Finns missing in Thailand were eventually identified. In April 2013, NBI came under public pressure after it was revealed that the Bureau had collected mostly indirectly connected information of suspicious persons with possible links to organized crime into a secret intelligence database. Russian president

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

was one of the persons recorded after his interaction with the motorcycle club Night Wolves. According to prosecutors, the database was lacking proper controls and vulnerable to unauthorized use. Reporters speculated in the media that having a record in the database could possibly cause financial losses and social exclusion for registered persons—who had no means to verify or be aware if they had been recorded. By April 2016, 97.3% of the nearly 50 000 entries had been determined legal and the rest deleted. Robin Lardot started as the Director in October 2013 and initiated an organizational reform by concentrating five of the former departments into three divisions and by reducing leadership positions. The reform was completed on 1 January 2015. Similarly, a new unit targeting cyber crime was established at the Bureau's headquarters in April 2015 with a preliminarily number of 45 staff. The unit's chief named concentrated cyber attacks as Finland's greatest threat at the time. In March 2015, the Bureau opened its first official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account and in August 2015, opened its doors for the first time to the public and allowed visitors to see contents of the Bureau's Crime Museum as well as art forgeries kept inside its headquarters. NBI was in charge of investigating the

Turku stabbing The 2017 Turku attack took place on 18 August 2017 at around 16:02–16:05 (UTC+3) when 10 people were stabbed in central Turku, Southwest Finland. Two women were killed in the attack and eight people sustained injuries. Police were informed at ...

of August 2017; considered Finland's first suspected terrorist attack since the end of World War II.

Mandate and organization

Mandate

NBI's mandate per law is to 1) counter international, organised, professional, financial and other serious crime; 2) investigate aforementioned offences; 3) provide expert services; 4) develop methods for criminal investigation; and 5) perform witness protection. It states that investigates high-profile offences, such as * criminal cases of major importance to the society, such as

cybercrime A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing th ...

, corruption,

securities fraud Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in lo ...

and

environmental crime Environmental crime is an illegal act which directly harms the environment. These illegal activities involve the environment, wildlife, biodiversity and natural resources. International bodies such as, G8, Interpol, European Union, United Natio ...

; * homicides with likely connections to organised crime; and *

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

offences, unless agreed otherwise with the Finnish Security Intelligence Service. The Bureau states that it engages in different operational activities, such as detecting and preventing money laundering and

, taking part in major

disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...

investigations through the Finnish Disaster Victim Identification Team (DVI), and coordinating combined PCB (Police Customs Border)

criminal intelligence Criminal intelligence is information compiled, analyzed, and/or disseminated in an effort to anticipate, prevent, or monitor criminal activity. The United States Army Military Police Corps defines criminal intelligence as information gathered or c ...

organised around the National PCB Criminal Intelligence Centre and the PCB Intelligence Units specialised in air, sea and land traffic. NBI hosts the national centres of

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

, Europol and

Schengen The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and j ...

cooperation as well as develops new

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

investigation methods, equipment and material for the police force.

Organization

In the fiscal year 2016, the National Bureau of Investigation's budget was approximately 72.5 million euros. NBI headquarters has been located in the

Tikkurila Tikkurila (; sv, Dickursby) is a district and major region of the municipality of Vantaa, Finland. Located in the eastern half of the Helsinki conurbation, some north of the capital's downtown district, it is the administrative and commercial h ...

district of

within the

Capital region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

area since 1994. The Bureau also hosts field offices in

, Mariehamn,

, Oulu and

. The headquarters houses the Crime Museum, which holds about 6 000 pieces of criminal history, including tools used in crimes and punishment as well as documents and photos with most of the collections from the 20th century. As of January 2014, NBI has been divided into three divisions in addition to administrative services: * Criminal Investigation Division * Criminal Intelligence Division * Forensic Laboratory The Criminal Investigation Division is further divided into sections on organised crime, homicide, financial crime and information gathering—and the Criminal Intelligence Division contains a separate section on international affairs as well as a

Financial Intelligence Unit Financial intelligence (FININT) is the gathering of information about the financial affairs of entities of interest, to understand their nature and capabilities, and predict their intentions. Generally the term applies in the context of law enfo ...

(FIU). NBI had 696 staff, of whom 39% were women, at the end of 2016. Most of the Bureau's personnel serve as law enforcement officers (60%) mainly in investigative and intelligence duties. Civilian staff include experts, such as chemists, laboratory assistants, clerks, engineers and linguists.

References

External links