The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) reports that its new “net tip” system which allows citizens to easily report suspected illegal online content has yielded threats of mass killings that are worthy of taking seriously.
The new system allows users of the Internet to bring possible crimes or their preparation to the attention of the police.
The tipoff service was introduced three weeks ago and during that time the NBI has received about 700 tipoffs of suspected crimes.
The NBI’s Jussi Hyysalo says that more than 200 of the "net tips" have led to follow-ups of some kind by the police.
Some have led to actual criminal investigations.
Most of the messages from users of the Internet involve racial hate speech and various types of security threats.
Hyysalo says that there were a few threats against schools, or other warnings of mass killings.
“There have been some very credible threats which have led to police action”, Hyysalo says.
In one case, police were told of a message board where one contributor sent messages similar to the online behaviour of the school shooters in Jokela and Kauhajoki.
Police found the true identity of the person involved and spoke to the writer.
Hyysalo would not give a detailed account of what the person had written, and he also declines to disclose what the police may have done to prevent the person from committing any violence.
Hyysalo does not believe that any of those who were traced on the basis of the net tips would have been planning any mass killings any time soon.
“We are sure that we are on the right trail. It is a long process for a high-school boy to become a serial killer, for instance. We have certainly managed to apply the brakes at some stage of that process.”
Hyysalo says that the experiences so far of the new tipoff system are positive.
“The system seems quite good. This is a great leap forward in handling speech, manageability, and processing of net tips. We can manage to serve the public much better than before”, he says.
A few officers of the NBI process the net tips during weekdays. Hyysalo says that a basic starting point is that all tips are considered.
