Investigation secretary and trailblazer
Investigation secretary and deputy head of Secretarial Services Leena Hotti
Eastern Uusimaa Police Department, Vantaa
Leena Hotti, investigation secretary and deputy head of Secretarial Services, has worked for the police in Vantaa for 36 years.
“When a training course for investigation secretaries began in Finland in the early 1990s, I was one of the first to complete the course and I think I was the first person to be appointed to the position of investigation secretary at what was then Vantaa police station,” says Leena Hotti.
Before doing the course, Leena had already worked for five years as a secretary in the prosecution department and HR management at what was known as Vantaa rural police district.
”Working life in the police force in the 1990s was still a bit rigid and formal in some respects. The rural police chief was addressed formally, and it was around half a year before he suggested I should use the informal pronoun when talking with him,” Leena recalls.
Leena Hotti notes that it was not immediately clear to the police how and in what roles an investigation secretary could be used. This required her to adopt a trailblazing approach, take initiative, and persevere so that the benefits of her professional expertise could be truly recognised.
”I’m an easily inspired person who just rolls up my sleeves and gets on with things. My job description gradually expanded to include preparing preliminary investigation reports, handling requests for executive assistance, helping injured parties, and other work related to investigations. Nowadays, our profession is an integral part of the work of various sectors of the police, and investigation secretaries work not only in crime prevention but also provide support of surveillance and emergency response operations and the traffic police.
Straight back to work from shopping for a wedding dress
”My most memorable work assignments are definitely from the time I worked for over 10 years in violent crime investigation. In addition to my basic duties, I was sometimes involved in searches of domestic premises and even played a crime victim in a few episodes of Police TV,” Leena laughs.
Leena particularly remembers an explosion that occurred at the Myyrmanni shopping centre at that time.
”I had left work early that day to go shopping for a wedding dress when my supervisor called and told me to return to work,” Hotti says, adding immediately afterwards that after that phone call, she ended up working long hours for several weeks on that particular case.
Wellbeing of team members is close to her heart
Leena began supervisory work in 2019, when she was asked to head the preliminary investigation secretarial team. Later, a crime prevention secretarial service was established at the police department, where Leena works together with 12 investigation secretaries and a team leader. Her workday consists mostly of supervisory tasks. Leena ensures that the assignments received from investigators, i.e., tickets, are distributed evenly among the investigation secretaries, and she herself prepares statements for the social welfare office and is responsible for customer service to citizens.
“What makes me particularly happy in my job is when I see that my team members are doing well, are happy and succeeding in their work. The wellbeing of my colleagues and team members is very important to me. We investigation secretaries work together as a team. This can be seen, for example, by the major effort we made last summer, when we worked together to clear a backlog of over 800 tickets. We celebrated the completion of this effort together with coffee and cake,” Leena says.
When not at work, Leena enjoys playing with her two wire-haired dachshunds. Leena, who will turn 65 in the summer, plans to continue working for a few more years, as she has plenty of enthusiasm, desire to develop, and energy.
