Police in Helsinki have released five former private security guards who were detained under suspicion of on-the-job violence, according to the Eastern Uusimaa police department.
The individuals were employed by the firm Avarn Security Finland at the time of the suspected crimes.
It was reported earlier that a total of nine people who worked for the company were under suspicion of violent crimes around train stations in the capital region.
All nine suspects who were detained have since been released, three of whom last week. At the time, police said those individuals remained suspects.
The former security guards are suspected of kicking and hitting people they encountered during their shifts.
One of the five suspects was released on Tuesday and the remainder were let go on Wednesday, Eastern Uusimaa police inspector Paavo Ritari said in a statement.
Police are continuing to investigate more than 20 related incidents that allegedly took place from May to December of last year. The probe is examining suspected various degrees of assault, threatening, defamation, breach of privacy and breaches of laws on intoxicants.
Number of criminal complaints about guards not recorded
Meanwhile, in a related story about the oversight of the private security industry, the National Police Board said that no national database is kept on how many criminal reports are filed about security workers.
The Police Board is in charge of overseeing the security sector but the body's head of security supervision, Marko Rahikainen, told Yle that such information is not collected about the criminal investigations of security guards, either.
He said the statistics kept are lacking in some respects, "even though the police's database systems are built to fit the purpose."
According to Yle's findings, last year at least 87 criminal reports were filed against various types of security guards at the Helsinki police department alone. In 2021, at least a hundred such complaints were filed.
The filing of a criminal report does not necessarily mean a crime has been committed and such reports do not always result in a preliminary investigation.
The interior ministry has requested information about criminal reports and investigations related to security guards.
A 35-year-old woman died while being detained by a group of four security guards on Saturday at the Iso Omena shopping centre.
That incident, involving guards from another security firm, Securitas, prompted a separate police investigation.
Before that deadly encounter took place, interior minister Krista Mikkonen (Green) had asked the Police Board for a report about the monitoring of the security industry.
The Police Board submitted a report, but it did not include all of the requested figures. The board said the lacking information was due an inadequate amount of time to deliver it.
The Ministry of the Interior has announced that it has commissioned an extensive report about training, operating methods and legislation in the security sector.
