Ombudsman to probe ethnic profiling report on security firms | News

Finland’s non-discrimination ombudsman looks at Yle’s report that two security companies use racial “codes” to describe people.

Photo: Iris Matson/YL

Security guards who spoke to Yle News in Swedish said that two large companies in the sector, Securitas and Reila, use internal codes to describe people, classifying individuals as “Arab”, “Asian”, “Russian” and “African”. The lists also included the “Young” and “Old, Unfit” symbols.

“Use [code] Lists raise questions about whether they make it easy to become a target of profiling? Do they follow you carefully if you belong to one of these groups? ” He said Robin Harms From the Office of the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman.

Harms, one of the senior advisers, said the ombudsman’s office was not aware of these types of listings, and noted that it was too early to determine whether this practice increased discrimination.

“Does this mean that the people on the list are treated worse than the others?” Harms wondered, noting that the people on the lists — Roma, Asians, and Afro-descendants — already face discrimination.

However, Harms said some situations may require guards to be able to send signals to each other quickly.

“If someone is in the middle of escaping – I can see that in that case it is justified to use a person’s skin color as a descriptor if necessary. But in general we should severely limit the use of acronyms based on race,” he explained.

Harms told Yle that the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman, Christina Steinmanwill follow up the case.

“It is now up to the security companies involved to explain how and why they use these codes. Then, from a non-discrimination law perspective, we will decide whether these companies’ interpretations are legally correct,” he said.

The two security companies, Securitas and Reila, responded to Yle by email that they welcomed the Ombudsman into the matter.

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