The police make more than 2,000 co-operation visits to Finnish schools this year

The school co-operation model launched in November 2024 has become well established as a part of the everyday efforts of the police. The model consists of three parts, which are problem-solving situations, visits at schools and online lessons.

Police patrols visiting schools and daycare centres have become an important part of the school co-operation model. The visits by police patrols are much awaited and they have received a lot of positive feedback from children, young people as well as school and daycare centre personnel.

“The visit of a police patrol is often so popular that the visit actually takes more time than originally planned, because there are plenty of questions to the police and the equipment in the police vehicle is of great interest to the audience,” is the message received from several police departments. The police visit daycare centres also in the summer, but visits to schools will continue after the summer holiday.

“Of course, the patrols go to schools also during the summer, as schools are popular gathering places for young people,” says Assistant Police Commissioner Pasi Rissanen and continues: “The message we wish to continue to convey with the visits is that the police are reliable, safe and easily approachable.”

The Police University College also visits schools and daycare centres as part of the school co-operation model. Giving legality education lessons is closely related to the studies at the College. Students of the Police University College made 71 visits during the spring term.

Successful solutions to problems

The most invisible part of the school co-operation model of the police is finding solutions to problems that arise in schools.

“These are problems that the police should solve as part of their duties, together with the school. The police has been contacted on many occasions and there have been several successful cases. The contacts have included a lot of consultation on how to proceed with the problems that have arisen at school,” Pasi Rissanen says.

The police can still be contacted with a low threshold. In this way, it is possible to think together about how to proceed in a certain matter and what the role of each party in solving the problem is.

Unfortunately, most of the cases at schools reported to the police were assaults. Since the start of the nation-wide school co-operation model, reports of offences have been categorised so that they can be monitored in more detail than before. In many police departments, the investigation of crimes taking place in schools has been centralised in the units that co-operate with schools.

The contact information of school police officers can be found in the contact information of each police department on the police website. The contact information is intended for use by the personnel of schools and educational institutions.

School25 group has adopted social media

The task of the four-member School25 group is to create versatile, educational and impactful online content, which also aims to involve others in social discussion on current topics. The national School25 group is responsible for the content concerning the whole of Finland, and the materials have been well received.

“This work has turned out to be important, because the feedback received from young people has been exclusively positive. One indication of the importance of the work is the fact that we have also received a lot of requests for interviews and visits,” the members of the School25 group say with a smile and continue:

The School25 group produces online material through the social media profiles of the group members. The number of views, the number of people reached and the number of followers are considerable. There have been 13,524,300 views on TikTok so far. More than 809,000 people have been reached on Instagram, and the account of the Finnish Police, where the group also produces material, has attracted more than 240,000 likes and just under five million views!

Online lessons reached a large number of students

The online lessons held by the police in the spring brought together a total of more than 255,000 children and young people in different parts of Finland in live PoliceTube streaming. The police requested feedback after the lessons from the participants and teachers. The feedback given by about 600 teachers shows that 94.5 percent consider the concept necessary.

As a whole, the lessons have received a lot of positive feedback. However, the concept is being developed further for the autumn, and the goal is to try to increase interaction, among other things. All lessons held can be found on PoliceTube as recordings, and new lessons will be held in the coming autumn.

Co-operation to continue in the autumn

Now it is time for students and teachers to have a well-deserved summer holiday. The school co-operation has started off well, and the police will resume it in August after the new school year has started.

“But, as mentioned, the police will patrol at schools and in their vicinity and, wherever possible, will go to talk to young people also during the summer,” Pasi Rissanen points out.

In the Government plan for public finances for 2026–2029, additional resources have been allocated to the police for issues such as school policing, so school co-operation will continue in the coming years as well.