The police supervised the start of the hunting season in an intensified campaign on 20-22 August 2021, in collaboration with other authorities.
The police conducted an intensified campaign to control hunting during the initial weekend of the duck and bear hunting season from 20 to 22 August 2021, throughout the country, in collaboration with other authorities, including the Border Guard, local game management associations and the game and fisheries wardens of Metsähallitus. The supervision focussed on local and regional key themes; in eastern Finland, the emphasis was particularly on bear hunting, and in other parts of the country, primarily on duck hunting. The aim of targeted supervision was to extend the impact to cover as large a proportion of hunters as possible, and to distribute infomation about the operations of the police to other citizens as well.
Nationwide, the police allocated a total of 883 working hours, that is, slightly over 110 person-workdays, to the campaign. Information about the control campaign was distributed actively both locally and in social media, and even though the weather conditions posed challenges to the supervision at certain locations, a total of 611 hunters were reached and encountered.
During the campaign, the police recorded 20 cautions, one fixed petty fine order, two fine requests and one crime report. The most common category of offence was a hunting violation. In addition, as administrative measures, the police has initiated two investigations relating to the possession of firearms permits.
At the national level, it can be stated that in the main, hunters comply with the provisions of the hunting act extremely diligently, and the violations detected during the supervision were minor and petty. Serious negligence or a criminal offence was detected in one case only, involving a hunter driving an unregistered quadbike on a public road under the influence of alcohol, not wearing a helmet, holding an unprotected, unloaded firearm on his lap, and had failed to pay the game management fee. This person is suspected of drunken driving and hunting violations.
The intensified control campaign of the police has been commended not only by the cooperating authorities, but hunters as well. The hunting supervision campaign, implemented in collaboration by the authorities, and communicating about it, was effective and influential, and the supervision was largely considered to be a positive and necessary operation. The National Police Board would like to thank hunters, cooperating partners and police departments for the successful supervision theme.
