On Thursday, Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen complained that the National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero appeared to have concealed information about how police managed their external sources.
Räsänen said she was shocked to learn that the Helsinki Police Department did not maintain a register of its informants. On Friday however, the minister appeared to recant her position, saying that Paatero enjoyed her confidence for as long as he remained in the position.
An Yle investigation into whether police sources are registered in any other parts of the country produced mixed results.
Like Helsinki, a number of other police departments in Finland do not keep any register of their sources, even if they are meeting with them daily. Some precincts explained that meetings with their informants were often random or that informants had not agreed to be registered.
Police concerned about informant safety
However criminal law professor Matti Tolvanen countered that although consent is required before someone can become a police informant, registration is up to the discretion of the police and the law doesn't require the informant to agree to this at all.
Police organisations expressed concern over the personal safety of whistleblowers, although some follow regulations to the letter and register each of their sources. The objective of registering informants is to ensure that police aren't overlooking whistleblower infractions and thereby committing crimes themselves.
Police throughout Finland are puzzled by the fact that clamour over the suspected crimes of the head of the Helsinki drug police Jari Aarnio, has grown to threaten even the position of the Commissioner, Paatero .
Police precincts in eastern and south-eastern Finland refused to respond to the Yle query, while others were not able to offer a clear answer to the question.
