Kyllönen chosen Police Officer of the Year

Detective Senior Sergent Jari Kyllönen, of the narcotics division at the Helsinki Police Department has been selected as the Police of the Year 2022, said an official press release on Friday.

In addition to his crime investigation work, Jari Kyllönen is a distinguished educator, actively participating, for example, in the education concerts entitled Pidä huolta! (Take care!) given by the Helsinki Police band as well as a volunteer in the association Irti Huumeista (“Free from drugs”).

This year, the Police Officer of the Year theme was drug crime investigation. It is a part of policing where the outcomes are widely visible in the media and public arenas, both in terms of success stories and failures.

Successful policing is evidenced by unmasked criminal organisations, drug confiscations, sequestrated proceeds of crime and bringing criminals to account for their deeds, not to mention the several referrals of addicts to treatment, and our preventive work.

In contrast, failures in policing are demonstrated by drug use visible on the streets, increased sense of general insecurity, violent crimes and property offences as well as social and health problems which involve entire families.

At the Helsinki Police Department, Kyllönen heads the drug-related investigation team of the Department’s Professional Crime function.

He has over two decades of experience in this line of investigation, first at the Police Department of the then Espoo jurisdictional district, and at the Helsinki Police Department since the year 2001.

The current responsibilities of Kyllönen include the daily leading of drug-related crime investigations.

According to the motivation of Kyllönen’s nomination as the Police Officer of the Year, he has an outstanding panoramic view of drug quantities, qualities, market, users and street trading in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

The team under Kyllönen’s leadership investigates hundreds of drug related crimes, including tens of aggravated cases of crime annually. The pretrial investigation is conducted in close cooperation with various Police and Customs authorities.

Since the year 2017, Jari Kyllönen and his colleague Maija Aunio have performed together in the Pidä Huolta! (Take Care) educational concerts. For their work, the pair was awarded the Stadin Skoude (Cop of Helsinki) title last year.