In Western countries today, security is seen predominantly as a problem of public places. It is widely felt that antisocial and/or criminal behavior has increased in public or semi-public places, such as on the streets, in town, in shopping centers, and in parks. With this, there has been a growing rise in the demand for new strategies in governing public places the most popular of which are crime prevention, community policing, and partnership. This article examines 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 programs. The security plans are analyzed from the point of view of moral regulation. It first sought to see what kinds of groups were identified in the plans as potential troublemakers and on what information this identification was based. Secondly, it sought to see what kind of crime prevention techniques, practices, and goals were proposed in the security plans as solutions to problem behavior. Lastly, it tried to find out what kinds of subject positions were construed in the security plans for moralized subjects and moralized objects. All three security plans show a green light to situational tactics of moral regulation that are based on the theory of routine activity. All three cities are committed in their security plans to the development of cooperation across administrative boundaries and between the public and the private sector. References