Police of Finland

The Police of Finland (Finnish: Poliisi, Swedish: Polis) is a national government agency responsible for general police and law enforcement matters in the Republic of 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.

On October 1, 2003, the Public Order Act went into effect, standardising public ordinances throughout the country.

The roots of policing in Finland date back to the early 19th century, when Governor-General Fabian Steinheil (1762–1831) demanded the establishment of a police department in Turku in 1811. The first police department was established in Turku in December 1816. After this, police departments were established in Helsinki in 1826 and in Vyborg in 1836. In the late 19th century, police departments were established in Tampere (1891) and Pori (1899), and in 13 other cities between 1902 and 1916.

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 were once issued by the local police, but since 2016 are issued by Traficom (Finnish Transport and Communications Agency).

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.

Local police departments as of 2014:

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