The number of emergency calls for police assistance increased by over 12,000 in January–June, due to amendments to the Alcohol Act that came into force at the beginning of the year. This was despite the decrease in the number of domestic disturbance calls during the same period.
Alcohol-related police tasks are clearly concentrated on restaurant closing times in the early hours of the morning, from five o’clock through to eight o’clock in the morning. The largest percentual rise in the number of alcohol-related emergency calls, and emergency calls in general, occurred between five and six o’clock in the morning.
“The police have noted an increase in the number of intoxicated persons, assaults, disorderly conduct and vandalism in the early hours of the morning,” says Deputy National Police Commissioner Sanna Heikinheimo , explaining that the police have already adapted their operations accordingly.
For example, there has been an increase of almost 65% in the number of assignments related to assaults between 5am and 6am, and an over 27% increase in the number of intoxication and disorderly conduct/vandalism cases compared to March–July in the previous year.
Heikinheimo is particularly concerned about the increase in resistance to public officials.
“Violent resistance to public officials, i.e., violence towards the police has increased by over a fifth (21.4 %) compared to the equivalent situation last year,” she says.
Police shifts have adapted to restaurants
Deputy National Police Commissioner Heikinheimo points out that longer opening hours have already affected the planning of police shifts throughout most of the country.
“Police departments have already had to shift their resources to the early hours of the morning, which has increased costs and the workload,” she says.
Drunk drivers reported more diligently
Heikinheimo is satisfied with the fact that members of the public are more often reporting cases of drunk driving. The numbers of such calls rose by over 1,100 in the first half of the year.
“It’s great that people are watching out and notifying the police of suspected cases of drunk driving,” says a grateful Heikinheimo.
On the other hand, the number of arrests of intoxicated persons are decreasing. Heikinheimo points out that this is partly due to the fact that many municipalities have increased their number of sobering-up stations. For example, a sobering-up station is being opened in Jyväskylä, which will hugely ease the workload of the Central Finland Police Department in terms of transporting intoxicated individuals. The police are delighted by this positive trend.
The Alcohol Act was amended on 1 January 2018. Under the new Act, from the beginning of March restaurants were given the right, subject to a notification of extended serving hours, to serve alcohol until 4am at the latest, with customers allowed to continue consuming alcohol in the restaurant until 5am.
