Police ability to cope at work worries Commissioner

National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen on Friday expressed concern over the police officers’ ability to cope at work, said a press release issued by National Police Board.

“On several occasions, we have faced a situation where resources have been stretched to the limit, and no room has been left for contingencies. Although police staff are extremely committed to their work, there is an imminent risk of them tiring themselves out, and a decline in citizens’ confidence in the police forces’ ability to bear primary responsibility for public safety,” he said while addressing the new police graduates’ swearing-in ceremony at the Police University College in Tampere.

In his speech, Kolehmainen addressed the impact of the current situation on the services provided for the public.

“People expect our services to be quickly available while crimes are prevented and investigated efficiently. However, the statistics show that our services have deteriorated as a whole. We have wanted to avoid compromising any services that secure lives and health. Our performance capacity has now reached the limit in respect of this target, too,” said the Commissioner.

The police’s average response time for urgent category A assignments is around ten minutes nationwide.

According to the estimate made in the recent statement to the Finnish Parliament’s Administration Committee, the police will be able to reach the scene of an emergency incident in 14 minutes on average in 2020.

“Even now, it takes more than 30 minutes on average from the call to help arriving in 136 municipalities. In sparsely populated areas, the waiting time may be more than an hour,” Kolehmainen said.

In the last ten years, the number of police officers has been reduced by more than 600. A similar reduction is scheduled for 2020–2024.

This would mean that the number of police officers would soon be 1,200 lower than at the beginning of the decade. At the same time, other Nordic countries have increased the number of police officers, and this will be increased even further.