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Finland Police Organization
![[PDF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pdf.gif)
Figure 24. Police and Frontier Guard Organization, 1988
Chambers of Police were established in 1816 in Turku,
and
later in other large towns. These chambers had the duty of
keeping order, preventing crimes and breaches of the
peace, and
acting as courts for minor offenses. Although the term
"police
department" was officially adopted in 1861, police forces
retained their judicial powers until 1897. In 1903 and
1904, the
town police became part of the state administration,
although
until 1977 towns still had the responsibility of
contributing
one-third of some costs of police service.
In rural areas, provincial governors had traditionally
appointed sheriffs, often poorly educated and inefficient
peasants, who frequently did not have regular deputies.
Only in
1891 did a decree provide for each sheriff's office to
have a
number of state-employed constables. The Police Act of
1925
brought town and rural police under the same set of
regulations.
Previous legislation and regulations pertaining to the
police
were superseded by the Police Act of 1967, a comprehensive
law
covering all police activities. Amendments in 1973
established
advisory committees of laymen to help improve relations
between
the police and the general public. The 1973 law also
defined the
structure of the Police Department in the Ministry of
Interior.
The Police Department of the Ministry of Interior was
both
the supreme command of the police and an operational arm
for
special functions carried on at a centralized level. Among
the
most important of these was directing three special police
forces, the KRP, the LP, and SUPO
(see
fig. 24). A
superintendent
of police headed each provincial police office, which had
operational command over local police units but had no
police
forces directly under it. Most prosecutors were part of
the
police system. The provincial superintendent of police
was, at
the same time, the provincial prosecutor who prosecuted
the most
serious crimes. Sheriffs were local administrative
officers,
acting as prosecutors in lower courts, as debt collectors,
and as
notaries public. Town police departments, headed by police
chiefs, numbered twenty-seven in 1988. There were 225
rural
police districts headed by sheriffs.
The organization of individual police departments
varied
depending on the size of the community and on its
particular
public safety problems. Departments generally had sections
that
dealt with public order and safety, accidents, driver's
permits,
criminal investigation, social problems (investigation of
crimes
against the Narcotics Act and violations of the Temperance
Act),
the civil register (population records, passports and
identity
cards, alien supervision), and a unit for preventive
police work
among youth. In communities large enough to be divided
into
precincts, the precinct officers conducted investigations
of
minor crimes, placed drunks in sobering-up cells, and
supervised
public facilities, including train and bus stations.
Larger rural police districts had similar divisions,
with the
addition of an administrative division to handle permits,
debt
collections, fines, and similar matters. The majority of
the
districts were small, however, with a staff of only ten or
twelve
policemen and no divisional organization.
Data as of December 1988
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