The police carried out an intensified nationwide elk and deer hunting control operation on 30 September – 27 October 2024. Hunters generally complied well with the rules, but some irregularities were detected. The most common hunting offence was transporting a firearm in a car in a prohibited manner.
The police carried out the wilderness operation in cooperation with other supervisory authorities respon-sible for hunting and fishing activities such as the Finnish Border Guard, game management associations and Metsähallitus game wardens. The control operation focused not just on the appropriateness of hunt-ing methods, but also in particular on safety aspects, including non-intoxication, hunters’ ability to handle a firearm and compliance with safety regulations.
Local police departments communicated the control operation beforehand and also in real time on social media. The police spent a total of more than 900 working hours nationwide on the operation. The intensi-fied control operation took place over four weeks, during which police departments were able to target control at the time considered best regionally.
Wardens detected only minor shortcomings
The authorities carrying out the control operation encountered almost 2,500 hunters personally, which is over 400 hunters more than a year earlier. In conjunction with the control operation, the police issued 71 admonitions, four fine requests and filed six police reports. The numbers were similar to those in 2023. The most common offence resulting in police work was a hunting offence, which was mostly a matter of a firearm being transported in a car in a way that is prohibited. Admonitions were usually given because firearm licences had been left at home when by law hunters should carry them with them. Some hunters had also forgotten to wear the right type of orange or orange-red items of clothing as required by the Hunting Decree.
The number of anomalies detected was very small in relation to the number of hunters encountered dur-ing the control operation, again showing that hunters are well aware of the rules and for the most part comply with them very well. Encounters between hunters and game wardens were also important, and discussions between hunters and the authorities during the control operation were considered very necessary by both sides. The control operation carried out in cooperation with the authorities and communicating information about elk and deer hunting was widely viewed as a positive and necessary duty. The National Police Board would like to thank hunters, partners and police departments for a successful control theme.
Police departments will communicate or have already communicated regional outcomes and/or local peculiarities and observations in more detail.
