Finland Finnish Culture

FINNISH RESEARCHER LAUDS NATIONALIZING OF POLICE FORCE AS ONE REASON FOR HIGH STANDARDS…..

Not so fast……..

While it may be true that standards across the board might improve law enforcement on some level, nationalizing police forces invariably leads to the politicization of them, as well as keeping them from being influenced by the very public that they’ve sworn to protect. They answer only to the hub in the center of politics, Helsinki.

In the US, federalism, or at least the very last gaspings of it, still honors states rights to manage their own police forces, with local and state police forces working side by side. While the YLE article looks down its nose at the US system, which greatly differs in size, complexity and historical experience from that of Finland, it handles itself rather well.

NOTE: Personally, I like the thought of a police chief running for election, his job is to ensure that the community feels safe, and when that’s not happening, the people can enact changes for the (supposedly) better, and then pressure the existing one out of office if the situation becomes to untenable.

For example, police training in the US lasts an average of 19 weeks, while Finns are trained in a three-year-long university of applied sciences programme. The programme also contains a year-long internship period in a police unit before active duty.

Police departments in the US are also locally administrated and funded, which can lead to uneven and underfunded policing in different areas and among various social strata. In Finland, funding is awarded on a nationwide basis.

Researcher: Why trust in the police force continues unabated

A recent police barometer suggests that 96 percent of Finns trust the police, a result that far exceeds the European average of 71 percent. Among headlines of drug chief corruption trials and increasing police violence, why do the Finns maintain their unwavering faith in their men and women in blue? Researcher Juha Kääriäinen helped Yle to outline some possible reasons.

Lähikuvassa poliisin virkapuvun hihamerkki.

Image: Mikael Kokkola / Yle

The Finnish population’s faith in the police force has become even stronger, if the latest police barometer results are to be believed. In a survey of 1007 respondents carried out this spring, the latest survey found that 51 percent of respondents trust the police very much, while 45 percent trust them quite much. The Interior Ministry commissions a police barometer regularly, the last was carried out in 2014.

Juha Kääriäinen, a researcher with the University of Helsinki’s Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy helped the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle to come up with explanations for this continued loyalty.

1. The Finnish police force is one of the highest trained police forces in the world

On the world scale, Finnish police are very well trained and receive a decent salary. For this reason, they are resistant to bribes and misbehaviour.

“We have an efficient police force that subscribes to a very high ethical standard. The positive barometer results can be interpreted in this way, if you wish,” says Kääriäinen.

For example, police training in the US lasts an average of 19 weeks, while Finns are trained in a three-year-long university of applied sciences programme. The programme also contains a year-long internship period in a police unit before active duty.

Police departments in the US are also locally administrated and funded, which can lead to uneven and underfunded policing in different areas and among various social strata. In Finland, funding is awarded on a nationwide basis.

2. Finland is a relatively safe country to live in

Another essential reason for resident’s trust in the police is the fact that Finland is a relatively safe place. In Honduras, for example, there are 61.3 homicides for every 100,000 people. In Russia, the corresponding number is 11.6. Here in Finland, the number drops to 2.5. Many Finnish police enter retirement without ever having used their firearm.

But the use of guns among police officers is not a correlate of how dangerous a country is. In the last year, 818 people were shot by police in the US, amounting to three persons a day on average. In Finland, the police force has killed just three people in the last year, and even this low amount prompted internal and external discussion.

“We live in an equal society which seeks to prevent crime, and there are few conflicts. This will naturally be reflected in measures of confidence. In other words, the police can be grateful not only for the trust they are given, but also the environment in which they operate daily,” Kääriäinen says.

More here.

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