The work of heroes. To leave and come back. A police patrol used this verse from a song by Juha Tapio to prepare themselves mentally for a mission that seemed demanding and dangerous based on the information reported to the police. Another almost iconic quote well-known to Finns comes from the 1980s police series Hill Street Blues: Let’s be careful out there. Sergeant Phil Esterhaus said this to his patrols as he sent them out. It was his way of encouraging every police officer to recognise and consider the hazards and risks of their jobs so that they could return home safely after a good day’s work.
However, this does not always happen. Some careers are cut short by severe injury or death. Police officers faced the greatest dangers between the 1920s and the 1940s. In addition, 1958 and 1969 were especially dangerous years. In 1958, a total of four policemen were killed on call-outs or at the scenes of robberies. The Pihtipudas killings are uniquely tragic in scope: never before have so many police officers died in the line of duty at once. In today’s terms, we would be talking about mass murder.
There have been two violent police deaths in the 21st century. Occupational safety has been improved through training, regular exercises, and better tools and equipment, but the importance of mental care has also been recognised.
A police killing is always a newsworthy event. Finns were particularly shocked by the police killings on Tehtaankatu in Helsinki in 1997. Journalists first learned about the event through tip-offs. Mobile phones were not ubiquitous at the time, and it was not possible to broadcast live from the scene. However, TV and radio news broadcasts and print newspapers followed the perpetrator’s capture closely.
The methods and pace of news reporting have changed. Online news started to grow in the 2010s. Smartphones made it easy for journalists to send videos and pictures to their offices and also for citizens to send tips to journalists. At the same time, the tempo of news coverage increased. The events of the standoff in Vihti in 2016 were widely reported in various media.
The Tehtaankatu police murders that took place in Helsinki in 1997 shocked both the police and the public. Numerous candles and flowers were brought to the scene. ©Finnish Heritage Agency, Sakari Kiuru.