The national theme week in street enforcement by the police revealed clearly less reprehensible issues than in previous years

Like before, all police departments carried out an intensified street enforcement and substance abuse enforcement operation during the week when schools in Finland ended for the summer. As the local police departments have already communicated extensively in their own areas, the celebrations of young people went mostly well in the end-of-school weekend.

The enforcement operation was mainly carried out through visible surveillance by intervening in the use and possession of all intoxicants. The special target group of the enforcement operation were adolescents under the age of 18. The enforcement operation was carried out in many areas together with youth and social services and the Regional State Administrative Agency.

Schools ended for the most part on Saturday 31 May, and during the enforcement operation in that weekend, 713 litres of alcohol were destroyed in the whole Finland. This is clearly less than in 2024 (1168 litres) and more than half as much as the amount of alcohol destroyed in 2023 (over 1500 litres). Of the beverages now disposed of, 231 litres had an alcohol content of more than 4.7%, which means that most of the alcohol disposed of was mild in terms of its alcohol content. More or less the same number of hours were spent on the enforcement operation during the entire enforcement operation week as in the previous years, so from the point of view of the police, it can be stated that there has been a clear change in the use of alcohol by young people in recent years. During the weekend, a total of 267 persons under the age of 18 were found guilty of criminal offences, and 21 of them were under the age of 15.

A total of 339 child welfare notifications were made during the whole week. It should be noted that as many as 1200 child welfare notifications were made during the corresponding enforcement period only a few years ago.

“The responsibility for children and young people and what they do always lies with their parents. This cannot be overemphasised. Now it seems that at least in terms of alcohol, parental supervision has also been effective, and adolescents did not carry much alcohol with them,” says Chief Superintendent Tuomo Korhonen of the National Police Board.

A total of six underage young persons suspected of narcotics offences were found during the enforcement operation week, which is also clearly less than in the previous year.