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Police College of Finland > About the College
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Contact information
| Police College of Finland in BriefThe Police College of Finland, located in Tampere, is a training institute under the direction of the Ministry of the Interior. It is responsible for police training recruitment, for selection of students for diploma and advanced programmes, for organizing diploma and advanced studies, for further training given in the training institute and for research and development in the police field. The training is given in Finnish and also in Swedish. » Training
1. Diploma in Police Studies
The Police College of Finland is located in the city of Tampere. It is situated in the outer suburb of Hervanta, about eight kilometres south of the city centre, and occupies a total area of approximately 21 hectares. Besides the teaching facilities and staff premises, the site also includes a driver training track, facilities for vehicle instruction and a practice area specifically designed for training in realistic police operations. There are also sports facilities, including a gym, an indoor swimming pool, a wrestling hall and a hall suitable for ballgames. In addition, there are eight student apartment blocks which can accommondate about 750 students.
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The Police College of Finland employs more than 200 people, about half of whom are teaching staff. About 40 per cent of the employees are police officers. The total also includes the employees at the police dog training centre.
National police training started in 1918, when the Government of the newly independent Finland ordered the Helsinki Police Department to set up a temporary police training school for national police training purposes. The school began operating in central Helsinki but was transferred to the nearby island of Suomenlinna the following summer. Later, cadet and police officer training was provided at the Police Academy in neighbouring Espoo and at the Academy’s Police Course Centre situated first in Helsinki and, since 1974, in Tampere. The National Police School became an independent training institute in 1986 and has been located in the Hervanta district of Tampere since 1993. The Police Academy in Espoo become the Police College of Finland in 1998. On January 1, 2008, the Espoo-based Police College of Finland and the Tampere-based National Police School merged to become a single training institute under the name Police College of Finland. As a result of the merger, all the diploma and advanced police training programmes and research are now concentrated at Tampere. The decision to merge the two police training institutes was taken by the Ministry of the Interior in April 2004. Police dog work in Finland began in 1909, when the first police dogs were brought to the Helsinki Police Department from Germany. Dogs and dog handlers have been trained at the police dog training centre at Rinkelinmäki in Hämeenlinna since 1927. The National Police Museum was established in spring 2004. It is located on the premises of the Police College of Finland at Hervanta in Tampere. The Museum opened its doors to the public in autumn 2008.  Back | Print page
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Training 
The Police College provides training in the following diploma and advanced programmes: 
Each year there are over 600 students in the diploma and advanced programmes. Normally more than 200 of them receive classroom teaching each week, though the number varies as the programmes progress. There were approximately 4,500 participants in further training courses and seminars in 2012.
The Police Dog Training Centre, which is part of the Police College, is located at Rinkelinmäki in the town of Hämeenlinna, some 75 km southeast of Tampere. The Police Dog Training Centre covers an area of seven hectares and comprises a training ground, other outdoor training areas, indoor training facilities, an obstacle course, teaching facilities, accommodation, offices and kennels.