Detective Senior Sergeant Risto Ottavainen of the Oulu Police Department has been voted Police Officer of the Year 2017.
Ottavainen works as a team leader in immigration investigations in Oulu. The immigration police are responsible for various tasks related to foreign nationals, such as removal from Finland, immigration control and cooperation between various authorities and immigrants.
Over the last few years, the immigration police have been particularly busy handling tasks related to asylum-seekers.
The police force's operating environment has changed markedly over the last few years due to factors such as large-scale immigration. For this reason, in their work the police are coming across more foreign nationals than before.
In addition, the police have completely new types of duties due to the change. These include situations where outsiders intervene in police action taken to repatriate foreign nationals, as well as threatening situations in reception centres.
Active and honest approach when meeting the public
The grounds for choosing the Police Officer of the Year state that Ottavainen's key virtues include treating clients as equals and his confidence-building behaviour.
The grounds state that “Ottavainen's positive attitude to cooperation and encounters with immigrants has lowered the threshold for clients contacting and engaging in dialogue with the police about issues of all kinds.”
Ottavainen emphasises the importance of immigrants learning to trust the Finnish police, since the situation in their home countries can be quite different.
– In Oulu, trust has become so strong that, among other things, Somalis have invited immigration police officers into their own mosque to discuss matters of concern to them, Ottavainen says.
Ottavainen is convinced that such activities have a positive impact on the integration of immigrants in Finnish society.
– You have to move among them and be active and honest about both positive and negative issues, without creating a misleading picture, Ottavainen says.
Diverse job profile
Risto Ottavainen is an experienced and skilled police officer. He has spent 21 years in various tasks with the police.
Ottavainen became a police officer in the Oulu Police Department in 1996, as a field officer in the uniformed patrol police, but he soon became an investigator in what was then the criminal investigation bureau (rikostoimisto), from which he moved to the violent crime investigation unit (väkivaltatutkinta).
He transferred to the immigration investigation unit of the Oulu Police Department in 2008, where he initially worked as an investigator and then as head of the Investigation Team.
– My job description is highly versatile. It includes team leadership, talking to people who are giving cause for concern, removals from Finland, immigration control, cooperation with the authorities, and preventive action, comments Ottavainen.
In his work, Ottavainen must also handle unpleasant immigration-related duties, such as implementing decisions to remove people from the country. In this work too, he emphasises the importance of impartial behaviour that inspires trust.
Ottavainen points out that immigration awakens strong views on both sides of the issue. The strongest statements show that people lack full knowledge of the details related to the issue and of legislation.
– Perhaps not everyone is aware that the police cooperate extensively with various authorities and direct immigrants towards seeking help from the right place, he says.
Ottavainen points out that cooperation in the north works seamlessly. The best result is obtained when problems are handled at the earliest possible stage.
The police should mingle with the public and build trust in various directions
Ottavainen highlights the importance of preventative work amongst immigrants.
He has participated in events bringing together local residents and immigrants, with the aim of preventing confrontation of any kind.
He has also spoken on immigration and asylum issues at venues such as church events, and has trained police officers in immigrant affairs.
– A large part of preventative work consists of getting out among people and building relationships with immigrants, third sector actors and the cooperating authorities, he says.
Northern cooperation works
Risto Ottavainen emphasises that immigration investigation is not a one man show, but is based on the efforts of an entire group and cooperation with bodies such as the Finnish Immigration Service, the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, the National Bureau of Investigation and reception centres.
– Our team includes 20 people and this award could just as easily have been made to the other 19, he comments on being named Police Officer of the Year.
This year’s Police Officer of the Year award is the 42nd of its kind. The recipient is decided by JCI Helsinki, the Finnish Police Federation and the National Police Board.
