Preventive Policing and Security Plans: The Reception of New Crime Prevention Strategies in Three Finnish Cities

In Western countries today, security is seen predominantly as a problem of public places. This has given rise to a growing demand for new strategies of governing public places, the most popular of which are crime prevention, community policing (e.g., zero tolerance) and partnership. Their aim is to encourage the public sector, voluntary organizations and market actors to work more closely with the police in a local effort to create and maintain a safe living environment. This article looks at what kind of reception the new methods of governing public places have received in three Finnish cities (Helsinki, Lappeenranta, and Tampere) by reviewing their newly formulated security plans and programmes. The analysis of this document material makes use of the concept of moral regulation. The analysis focuses on the kind of local security problems that are identified in these security plans as targets of moral regulation; what kinds of techniques they propose for addressing and resolving these problems; and in what kind of crime prevention role they position the subjects of moral regulation (police officers and police partners) and the objects of moral regulation. The analysis shows that Helsinki aims to regulate the problems occurring in public places by emphasizing a neo­liberal ethos. Lappeenranta, on the other hand, walks a tight­rope in its security plan between communitarian and welfare state ambitions. Tampere, for its part, responds to the security threat in public places by adopting a neo­leftist stance (cf. the Third Way).