The police performed enhanced supervision of licensed restaurants and foreign nationals nationwide from 23 to 29 September 2019.
“Slightly more cases of serving alcoholic beverages to intoxicated persons were observed in licensed restaurants than in the previous year. In contrast, serving alcohol to an underage person was noted only in two places. The number of reports to regional state administrative authorities increased from 10 cases in the previous year to 23 cases”, says Chief Superintendent Ari Järvenpää from the National Police Board.
Breaches of public order were also slightly more frequent than in the previous year. Five foreign nationals working in the country illegally were met during the campaign.
Some police departments carried out the supervision operation in cooperation with alcohol inspectors, rescue services and occupational health and safety inspectors.
The supervision targeted licensed restaurants which have caused disturbances of public order, in particular. The supervision of restaurants licensed to sell alcoholic beverages focussed specifically on serving alcoholic beverages to intoxicated and underage persons, public order at the licensed restaurants and the impact of the business on the outside of the restaurants and their immediate vicinity.
The supervision also sought to take into account Section 45 of the Alcohol Act, which entered into force on 1 March 2018, and its requirement to appoint a certain number of security stewards in a licensed restaurant.
Supervision of foreign nationals was performed in connection with the supervision of licensed restaurants.
Breaches at licensed restaurants continue
More cases of serving alcoholic beverages to intoxicated persons and breaches of public order were noted in licensed restaurants than before.
The findings were compared to figures from 2012–2014 and 2016–2018, because enhanced supervision could not be carried out in 2015 due to the asylum-seeker situation.
This year, the supervising officers had to intervene in 26 cases of serving alcoholic beverages to clearly intoxicated persons and two cases of serving alcoholic beverages to an underage person. The number of cases of serving alcoholic beverages to intoxicated persons was 15 in 2018 and 20 in 2017.
The number of cases of serving alcoholic beverages to underage persons was two in 2019, one in 2018 and three in 2017.
Security stewards lacking the security steward licence
A total of 16 breaches of public order were noted during the course of the supervision. In most of these cases, a person performing the duties of a security steward did not have a valid security steward card at the workplace. The number of similar offences was nine in 2018 and 15 in 2017.
There were 22 disturbances of public order in or outside licensed restaurants. The corresponding figure last year was 12 and 21 in 2017.
Supervision of foreign nationals in 189 restaurants
Supervision of foreign nationals targeted 189 restaurants this year. Approximately 400 persons were inspected in connection with the supervision of restaurants, five of whom are suspected of working in Finland without the necessary permit.
“The supervision of foreign nationals involves checking that any foreign nationals subject to control measures satisfy the criteria for remaining and working in Finland; that is, do they have a legal right of residence and employment here”, says Chief Superintendent Mia Poutanen from the National Police Board.
The supervision of foreign nationals is a statutory duty of the police and is usually carried out as part of other police activities, such as, in this case, the supervision of licensed restaurants. Control measures carried out by the police targeting an individual person must not be based solely on the person’s real or assumed ethnic origin, for example, the skin colour of the person subject to the control measure; there must always be other grounds for the control measure as well.
“Finland is not an attractive country for illegal residents and, consequently, illegal residence in Finland is quite rare”, Poutanen says.
