The National Police Museum was visited by more than 29,000 people in 2019. The number of visitors remained on par with previous years even though the museum was only open for 11 months due to renovation work. As usual, the most popular time to visit the museum was July.
“A new permanent exhibition, The Police is Here! , opened in June. Preparation and construction of the exhibition took place throughout the entire first half of the year, but we were still able to keep the museum open to the public almost all of that time. However, exhibition spaces had to be partially isolated, and the circumstances are always exceptional during construction anyway. That is why the number of visitors in 2019 is a very happy matter for us”, says Intendent Tiina Tuulasvaara-Kaleva .
“We are pleased that the new exhibition has been very positively received. It is very important for the museum that visitors are happy with their visit: that means that we have succeeded.”
Availability and accessibility as special themes
The Police Museum’s functional space, or TOTI, was given a new look during the Christmas break. The TOTI space forms its own entity with experiences for visitors. The space includes the Pokela police station for children, a virtual patrol game, a crime scene game, a “game den” and a cinema.
“The Pokela police station continues to be popular, and it is gratifying that we have gained favor with families, schools and kindergartens in the local area. You can even say that we have regular visitors. In addition to Pokela, visitors are entertained by a ‘game den’ where we will have traditional board games and interactive games alike. Not everything is going to be ready right at the beginning of the year, but we will be increasing our offering as the year progresses.”
One important goal for 2020 is increasing availability and accessibility.
“We want to offer more things to experience for our visitors with special needs as well. The Police Museum will soon be displaying police equipment for visitors to touch and inspect. Signs and labels facilitating passage will also be added to make it easier for the visually impaired to move through the museum, for example”, Tiina Tuulasvaara-Kaleva says.
