Police organisation
Poliisihallitus
The body that guides and directs operational police activity in Finland — a governance and command body rather than a police force in its own right.
At a glance
- Official name
- Poliisihallitus
- Commonly rendered in English as
- National Police Board — a rendering in common use, not the organisation’s own name.
- System
- Finland
- Level of government
- National
- Kind of body
- Police governance body
- Status
- Currently operating
- Facts last checked against sources
- 13 September 2026
What it is
Finnish policing is directed on two levels that a reader should not collapse. The Ministry of the Interior guides and directs the police service and prepares the legislation; the National Police Board guides and directs operational police activity. Beneath the Board sit the local police departments, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Police University College and the Finnish Security Intelligence Service. The Board is a governance body: treating it as "the Finnish police" would misdescribe both it and the departments that do the policing.
What it covers
Finland. The Board directs; it does not itself patrol a territory.
Broad responsibilities
- Guiding and directing operational police activity in Finland
Who it answers to
The Ministry of the Interior guides and directs the police service and prepares the related legislation — a different ministry from the one responsible for the courts, prosecution and prisons.
Elsewhere on this site
- Poliisimuseo — the museum, archive or collection that holds this organisation’s history
- Who polices what — how Finland is structured, against other systems
- Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu — the training institution this organisation runs. It trains; it does not decide who joins.
Other organisations to compare
- Keskusrikospoliisi — Finland
- Suojelupoliisi — Finland
Where this connects
Institutions: National police.
Sources
Police (and agencies and responsibilities)
Ministry of the Interior, Finland (sisäministeriö / inrikesministeriet) · Government publication · link verified 2026-09-19
The Ministry of the Interior's English police pages, read directly and re-confirmed. Supports that "the Ministry of the Interior guides and directs the police service, and prepares related legislation" — placing the police under a DIFFERENT ministry from the courts, prosecution and prisons (which are under the Ministry of Justice) — and that the National Police Board (Poliisihallitus) guides and directs operational police activities. Lists the police agencies: the National Police Board, the local police departments (11 on the mainland), the National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi), the Police University College and the Finnish Security Intelligence Service. CHANGED SINCE READ: automated checks on 2026-09-28 and 2026-10-05 found this page’s text different from the version read on 2026-09-19. It could not be read again: intermin.fi answered HTTP 403 to the request made in researching it on 2026-10-10, although the same host had served those checks. What changed is not known, and nothing here is restated from the changed page.