Police of Finland

Police of Finland
Poliisi
Polisen
The sword and lion emblem is the symbol of the Police of Finland
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction Finland
Headquarters Helsinki

Parent agency Ministry of Interior
A Finnish police van featuring vanity plates promoting the common European emergency telephone number 1-1-2
Helsinki Police Department's patrol boat, Ville 3 (designation 493), speeding away.
Finnish motorcycle police.
Finnish mounted police.
Finnish police car.

The Police of Finland (Finnish: poliisi; Swedish: polisen) is a government agency responsible for general police and law enforcement matters in Finland. The Police of Finland is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior and consists of the National Police Board (Finnish: Poliisihallitus, Swedish: Polisstyrelsen), two national police units and 11 local police departments.[1]

On October 1, 2003, the Public Order Act went into effect, standardizing public ordinances throughout the country.[2]

The official insignia of the Finnish Police consists of the crowned head of the Finnish Lion placed at the place of the handle of a two-edged sword.

Local police departments

The police is divided into police departments, which encompass the area of multiple municipalities; municipalities do not have police forces of their own. The function of each police department is to maintain general law and order, prevent crime, investigate crime and other events that threaten public order and safety, to carry out traffic control and surveillance and promote traffic safety, and perform all other duties prescribed by law or otherwise assigned to the police in their area. Local police departments are organized into uniformed patrol police (Finnish: järjestyspoliisi, literally "order police") and criminal investigation police (Finnish: rikospoliisi, literally "criminal police").

Local police also processes licenses and permits such as gun licenses, national ID cards and passports, and furthermore, enforces immigration decisions by the Finnish Immigration Service. Local police must also be notified when organizing public events that may significantly influence local public security and traffic. Driving licenses have been issued by the local police, but from 2016, driving licenses will be issued by Trafi (Finnish Transport Safety Agency).[3]

Alarm services are operated by Emergency Response Centres managed by the Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.[4]

Local police departments as of 2014:[5][6]

  • Central Finland Police Department (headquarters in Tampere)
  • Eastern Finland Police Department (Kuopio)
  • Eastern Uusimaa Police Department (Vantaa)
  • Helsinki Police Department (Helsinki)
  • Häme Police Department (Lahti)
  • Lapland Police Department (Rovaniemi)
  • Ostrobothnia Police Department (Vaasa)
  • Oulu Police Department (Oulu)
  • Southeastern Finland Police Department (Kouvola)
  • Southwestern Finland Police Department (Turku)
  • Western Uusimaa Police Department (Espoo)

In addition, the Åland Islands has its own police department which falls under the responsibility of the Government of Åland (see law enforcement in Åland).

National police units

The National Bureau of Investigation (Finnish: Keskusrikospoliisi, KRP, Swedish: Centralkriminalpolisen, CKP) is responsible for major criminal investigations and certain types of specialist services such as fingerprint recognition. The NBI was formed in 1954 to assist the country's other police elements in efforts against crime, particularly that of a serious or deeply rooted nature.[7] A special concern of the NBI is white-collar crime. To carry out its mission, the force has advanced technical means at its disposal, and it maintains Finland's fingerprint and identification files. The NBI is not a part of the police, instead it is a separate nationwide law enforcement agency which assists local police with investigations. .[7]

The Police University College (Finnish: Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu, Polamk, Swedish: Polisyrkeshögskolan) in Tampere is responsible for police training, research and development.[8]

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Finnish: Suojelupoliisi, Supo, Swedish: Skyddspolisen, Skypo) is responsible for national security and the investigation of related crimes. The Supo was moved directly under the Ministry of the Interior in 2016.[9]

The National Traffic Police (Finnish: Liikkuva poliisi, Swedish: Rörliga polisen) was folded into the local police in 2013, thus local police is also responsible for highway patrol. Originally, local police districts were very small and had limited resources, so a separate mobile police organization was founded for riot control, alcohol law enforcement and reserve force duties. Political reliability and independence from local strongmen was also important because of the threat from fascists; indeed, the first task was to escort former president K.J. Ståhlberg back to his home after he was kidnapped by the Lapua Movement. The organized later evolved into a highway patrol. However, because of mergers, local police departments had become larger. Thus, the separate national organization was deemed redundant and traffic police units were subordinated to the local police departments instead, without change in the actual number of highway patrol officers.

Other nationally active formations

Police Rapid Response Unit (Finnish: Poliisin valmiusyksikkö), also known as Bear Group (Finnish: Karhu-ryhmä), is a specialized armed response unit. It is officially part of the National Bureau of Investigation.

In June 2008, the Finnish police established a Police Incident Response Team tasked with improving the prevention, detection and management of serious information security incidents.[10]

Police ranks

The Finnish police uses the following ranks:[11][12][13]

Class Patrol police Criminal investigation Supo English Other
Rank and file Nuorempi konstaapeli (none) Junior, patrolman, trooper, officer Constable Instructor (kouluttaja)
Vanhempi konstaapeli Vanhempi rikoskonstaapeli Etsivä Senior Constable / Detective -
Non-commissioned officer Ylikonstaapeli Rikosylikonstaapeli Ylietsivä Sergeant (lit. Superior Constable) / Detective Sergeant Teacher
Officers Komisario Rikostarkastaja Tarkastaja Inspector (lit. commissary)
Ylikomisario Rikosylitarkastaja Ylitarkastaja Chief Inspector Head of Licence Services (lupapalvelutoimiston toimistonjohtaja)
Poliisitarkastaja Osastopäällikkö Superintendent Police Attorney (poliisilakimies), Head of Administration (hallinto-osaston johtaja)
Apulaispoliisipäällikkö - - Assistant Police Chief -
- Poliisiylitarkastaja, apulaispoliisipäällikkö (KRP) Apulaispäällikkö Deputy Police Chief / Chief Superintendent Deputy Police Chief of Helsinki
Poliisipäällikkö - - Police Chief -
Poliisijohtaja Päällikkö (KRP) Päällikkö Assistant/Deputy National Police Commissioner Helsinki Police Chief, Rector of Police College
Poliisiylijohtaja National Police Commissioner -

Criminal investigators prefix their ranks with rikos-, "Detective", literally "Criminal", e.g. rikostarkastaja.

Rank insignia on the shoulder epaulettes is all silver on blue with a silver button. The rank insignia for Senior Constable is a single bar, added with two chevrons for Sergeant. Police officers have bordered rows of oak leaves, with a Lion of Finland next to them. Additionally, on the collar there is pentagonal insignia that always has the emblem with laurel leaves and a border, but with colors slightly varying with rank; officers have a border around the pentagon.

Finnish military ranks as in the Finnish Army are also used by the Finnish Border Guard, but with some differences. The conscript rank of Private is rajajääkäri. Career border guards are NCOs that serve in the ranks of nuorempi rajavartija (~kersantti) and vanhempi rajavartija (~ylikersantti) ("Junior" and "Senior Border Guard", respectively), and there are two higher ranks, ylirajavartija and rajavartiomestari ("Supervisor Border Guard" and "Master Border Guard"), corresponding to vääpeli and sotilasmestari.

Equipment

Vehicles

The most common vehicle of police in Finland is Volkswagen Transporter, usually with 2.5 l diesel engines. In 2002 about one third of Finnish police cars were Transporters.[17] Transporters are also used by border guards, customs, and sotilaspoliisi (military police). Due to the bilingualism of the country, the right side of the vehicles is marked in Finnish language (POLIISI), the left side is marked in Swedish language (POLIS). The siren used for the Finnish police cars are also used for the police of Sweden.

Current vehicles of the Finnish police

Marked police motorcycles are usually either BMW K1200 RS, Yamaha FJR 1300, Yamaha FZ1, Yamaha XT660, Honda VFR1200 or KTM 1190 Adventure models. Unmarked motorcycles are Yamaha YZF1000R Thunderace- and Yamaha YZF-R1 models. Motorcycles are used in pursuit situations.

Finnish police also operates snowmobiles, water scooters and boats.[19] Helsinki police has a horse-riding unit.

Recent history

During 2016 New Year celebrations in Germany, particularly Cologne, there was a wave of mass sexual assaults. Deutsche Welle reported that in Finland, the Finnish Police had prevented a similar event in Helsinki with massive police presence. Some 1000 asylum seekers were gathered to the scene on the evening. The police had been tipped of an intent for "sexual abuse, robberies and theft". 15 refugees were taken into custody, with the rest continuing the evening peacefully.[20]

Since 2000, there have been anarchist and extreme leftist demonstrations involving rioting against the Independence Day Reception hosted by the President of Finland, such as Kuokkavierasjuhlat and later, similar events. In 2013, there was the so-called Tampereen Kiakkovierasjuhlat 2013 in Tampere, where the police captured 28 individuals, and three policemen were injured.[21] In 2014, the police captured 30 individuals, following extensive vandalism and rioting by ca. 150-200 rioters.[22] On independence day 2015, Finnish Police fired a compressed air gun at anarchist demonstrators who tried to attack a nationalist demonstration,[23] and captured 130 individuals.[24]

On 23 January 2016, a couple of anarchist demonstrators dressed as circus clowns were taken in to police custody after they disrupted a public demonstration in support of closing national borders.[25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Poliisi - Organisation". www.poliisi.fi. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  2. ↑ Public Order Act Retrieved 19 May 2007
  3. ↑ "Poliisi - Ajokortti". www.poliisi.fi. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  4. ↑ "Etusivu - 112 Hätäkeskuslaitos". www.hatakeskus.fi. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  5. ↑ "Poliisi - Contact information". www.poliisi.fi. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  7. 1 2 Text from PD source: US Library of Congress: A Country Study: Finland, Library of Congress Call Number DL1012 .A74 1990.
  8. ↑ "Poliisi - Police University College". www.poliisi.fi. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  9. ↑ "Government advances plan to move Supo to Interior Ministry". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  10. ↑ "Finnish police sets up IRT". Blog.anta.net. 2008-06-23. ISSN 1797-1993. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  11. ↑ "FINLEX ® - Säädökset alkuperäisinä: Valtioneuvoston asetus poliisista 1080/2013". www.finlex.fi. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  12. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-02-17. Retrieved 2015-02-17.
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-11-09. Retrieved 2015-02-17.
  14. ↑ Retrieved 13 April 2013
  15. ↑ Retrieved 7 October 2018
  16. ↑ "Poliisin asearsenaali uusiksi – konepistoolit ja kiväärit menevät vaihtoon, mahdollisesti myös pistoolit". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  17. ↑ Retrieved 26 March 2014
  18. ↑ Pictures can be found of the vehicles
  19. ↑ Retrieved 26 March 2014
  20. ↑ (www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle. "Further NYE sexual assaults in Helsinki prevented by police tip - News - DW - 08.01.2016". DW.COM. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  21. ↑ http://www.kaleva.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/tampereen-poliisi-kyseessa-oli-rosvojoukko-vahingot-vahintaan-kymmeniatuhansia/650256/
  22. ↑ http://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/a1418017638678
  23. ↑ "Video: Poliisi käytti anarkisteja vastaan paineilma-asetta – tällainen on FN 303". 6 December 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  24. ↑ http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2015120620791469_uu.shtml
  25. ↑ "Poliisi otti kiinni kaksi klovnia mielenosoituksessa Tampereella". 23 January 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
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