The government has proposed an additional appropriation of EUR 3 million for the development and improvement of police premises. The proposal is part of a complementary proposal for next year’s budget, which was submitted to the Parliament on Thursday.
The funds are to be allocated to cover the additional lease fees of the temporary premises of the main police station of the Oulu Police Department.
“The staff of the main police station of the Oulu Police Department have suffered from severe indoor air problems on the temporary premises, so now the plan is to move the operations to new centralised temporary premises while we wait for the construction of the main police station to be completed. The funds allocated for the move will significantly improve the situation of the staff of the police department”, National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen says.
Signing the lease for the new temporary premises required an additional funding of approximately EUR 3 million to the current budget.
The main police station of the Oulu Police Department is scheduled to be finished in 2024 if the police succeed to secure the funding for the project proposed by the National Police Board of Finland to be added to the public budget plan for the years 2021–2024.
Police given the opportunity to recruit 60–80 more staff
The police have been allocated additional resources to recruit more staff, and the funds will be used to hire 60–80 new staff members next year. The police aim to allocate the additional funds for proactive initiatives, prevention of minor offences and readiness for PNR (passenger name record) operations.
Next year, the key areas for development are improvement of police response, prevention of child sexual abuse and prevention of environmental offences as laid down in the government programme.
“We are happy that the Government of Finland has addressed our needs in a way that allows us to improve our operations. Police units have given feedback to the National Police Board on the most important needs, and the final decisions regarding the allocation of funds will be made later”, National Police Commissioner Kolehmainen says.
