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The Police is Here!
How has police work changed during the years? What did a “relay crown servant” do? What about the “vice squad”? When did Finland’s first Internet police officers begin working?
The National Police Museum’s The Police is Here! permanent exhibition provides answers to these and many other questions. In the permanent exhibition, we give information about witch hunts, homicide, State treason, and cybercrime in the modern world.
Photo The Police Museum
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A view of the exhibition
In the Police is Here! permanent exhibition museum visitors are able to walk along streets and alleys where the police do their everyday work. The “criminal landscape” of the various epochs is on display: crimes, accidents and the dark side of the lives of police clients.
Photo The Police Museum, Jarkko Järvinen
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A police Saab car from 1988
The permanent exhibition in the Police Museum features various police vehicles.
In the 1970s, Saab was Finland’s most common police car, and these vehicles were produced in the city of Uusikaupunki in Finland. Continuous product development eventually resulted in the Saab becoming a highly reliable vehicle for police work. In 1974, some of the police cars were painted with blue and white police insignia. The photo shows a police Saab from 1988.
Photo The Police Museum
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Suspect registration chair
In the Police Museum’s permanent exhibition, museum visitors can, for example, examine a view into a room where an old chair in which suspects were photographed for police records is on display. Crime suspects were photographed sitting in this chair.
In the Police Museum, museum visitors can themselves sit in a similar chair.
Photo The Police Museum -
A child playing in Pokela
There is a lot to do in our children’s section Pokela. Children can, for example, sit behind the wheel of a small police car and play with toys. In Pokela, touching the items is permitted!
There is a hidden treasure in the closet: small police overalls that the little officers of Pokela police station can wear during their tour.
Photo The Police Museum, Reetta Lepistö
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Police officers in Kuopio in 1913
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A police officer on the telephone
Telephones were in active use at the Helsinki Police Department already in the early 1900s.
Photo The Police Museum, the Crime Museum collection,
A. Rosenberg -
Escape from aerial bombing
During the war, the police supervised people’s movement and evacuation on the home front. In the picture, Helsinki residents are seen at the railway station on 27 February 1944, escaping from aerial bombings of the city. Police officers are present in the midst of the crowd.
Photo The Police Museum
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The police at the Helsinki Olympics
Before the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, concerns were raised about how presentable the police would be in the eyes of an international audience. The aim was to modernise the military uniform, and the conduct of the police, making them more relaxed. The trend was similar in other Nordic countries, and the civilian-type uniform of “gentleman police” was first introduced in Finland. Before the Olympics, police constables received training in languages and instructions on how to behave, present themselves and serve the general public.
Photo The Police Museum
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A female police officer in traffic surveillance
In the early 1900s, the criminal investigation departments recruited female officers to serve in the vice squad. In the 1920s, they were put in charge of for example arrested women, unwed mothers and “vagrant children”.
The first training course for female police officers was arranged in 1923. The education and training, position and pay of female police officers was weaker than that of male officers for a long time. From the 1970s onwards, men and women received the same police training, and at that time, women also entered the uniformed police squad. In 2019, women were present in all police duties, except the National Special Intervention Unit.
In the photo, a female police officer is checking the paperwork of a lorry driver in the 1980s–1990s.
Photo The Police Museum
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Unmanned aircraft in the police forces
The amount of technical equipment used by the police has increased in the 2000s. In the picture, the police operate an unmanned aircraft (UAS), a drone.
Photo Sami Hätönen
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A counterfeit painting being examined
The exhibition titled The coloured truth – Art crime in Finland presents the key incidents of art crime committed in Finland and the related preliminary investigations conducted by the police. In the exhibition, the visitors have an opportunity to see forged copies of work by various artists such as Gallen-Kallela, Schjerfbeck, Picasso and Léger.
All works seen in the exhibition are now part of the Police Museum's collections. Originally, they were confiscated in connection with the preliminary investigation by the police, and handed over to the state as instruments of crime.
Photo The Police Museum, Jarkko Järvinen
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A visitor in the exhibition on art crime
The Coloured Truth exhibition is not an art exhibition, but a portrayal of art crime and its history, as well as the investigations carried out by the police in cooperation with art experts. At the same time, the visitors have the opportunitity to learn for example how to distinguish counterfeit artwork from an original, or the tricks used by fraudulent sellers in art trade.
The artwork in the exhibition are genuine forgeries and often sold with a forged certificate of authenticity – nothing is what it seems to be.
Photo The Police Museum, Reetta Lepistö
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Pre-trial investigation material in the exhibition
All in all, more than 30 persons were suspects in the art crime cases. Some 30,000 pages of pre-trial investigation material was accumulated and more than a hundred pre-trial investigation records were prepared. The complex set of crimes required the police to understand a new type of operating environment, so that they had to study the concepts of art and familiarise themselves with the patterns of the art market.
Photo The Police Museum, Jarkko Järvinen
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Framed works of art
The starting point of fraud committed using art is that the buyer cannot recognise the artwork as a forgery, and does not know the market price of a genuine work of art. Fraudsters can go to a lot of trouble in order to commit the crime. For example, a credible origin and background story is invented for the forged artwork.
Art forgers use various methods to make the paintings look old. An old frame makes the new artwork look convincing. Art forgers also colour, smudge and scratch the canvas and paper. Fresh oil colours can be dried in the heat of the sauna. There are cases in which an old poster or picture from a book has been framed, and pretended that it is genuine.
Photo The Police Museum, Jarkko Järvinen
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More than 40 injured parties deceived
Since 2009, the total value of damage caused by art crime investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation amounts to almost EUR 20 million. Operation FAKE detected more than 40 deceived injured parties. Among them, there were wealthy collectors as well as ordinary citizens who lost their savings when buying “valuable art”. Art enthusiasts, professionals and art museums alike were deceived. It is likely that some of the buyers of forgeries have not contacted the police. This can be due to ignorance, shame or even the desire to “pay it forward”.
Photo The Police Museum, Jarkko Järvinen
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Ultraviolet lamp helps in investigation
Art forgeries are investigated in cooperation between authorities. For the police in Finland, the most important cooperating party is the Finnish National Gallery and its art historians, conservators and materials researchers. By request of the police, the Finnish National Gallery studies the authenticity of artwork suspected to be a forgery. This provides the basis for preliminary investigation and consideration of charges by the police.
Photo The Police Museum, Jarkko Järvinen
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Forged certificate of authenticity
The police investigate whether the agent selling the forgery has been aware of its suspicions origin, that should have been verified before selling the artwork as genuine. In the art market, there are valuable works of art “found in the attic”, with vague background information or completely lacking any. A forged artwork can be accompanied by a forged certificate of authenticity.
The National Bureau of Investigation’s Operation FAKE revealed a forged artwork by Eero Järnefelt, “Flowers on the windowsill, 1910”. A forged certificate of authenticity is attached to the back of the painting. The painting was made based on a picture of Järnefelt’s painting “Flowers on the windowsill” from 1918, included in an auction catalogue. The asking price of the painting by Järnefelt was EUR 7,000–10,000.
Photo The Police Museum, Jarkko Järvinen
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Fingerprint analysis
Manager of the Crime Museum, assessor Viljo Vathén, is analysing fingerprints in 1955. Vathén’s colourful guided tours in the Crime Museum were famous for making some of the visitors feel nauseous.
Photo The Police Museum, the Crime Museum collection
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Microphotography equipment
The Crime Museum collection sheds light on the history and development of forensic crime investigation. This microphotography equipment was acquired for the Crime Research Centre in the 1920s–1930s.
Photo The Police Museum, the Crime Museum collection
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An executioner’s axe
The executioner’s axe of the Province of Kuopio executioner and its storage box from the late 1700s. The purpose of the axe with a wide blade was to decapitate a person.
Photo The Police Museum, the Crime Museum collection
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Criminal investigation department van
Helsinki Police Department received the first criminal investigation department investigation van in 1951.
Photo The Police Museum, the Crime Museum collection
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Archive of the Distinguishing Features Office
One of the methods used by criminal investigation departments has been to collect various types of information and compile personal registers. The Crime Research Centre’s Distinguishing Features Office collected a variety of information of criminals, including fingerprints, photographs and a card file of nicknames.
Photo The Police Museum, the Crime Museum collection
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Smugglers’ car
The Prohibition Act meant a lot of work for the police in 1919–1932. Even though the purpose of passing the Act was to safeguard public morale, to eradicate crime and bad manners, the exact opposite happened. Smuggling and trade of liquor started to flourish, and the crime rate increased manifold.
In the photo, police from Helsinki investigate the car of moonshine bootleggers.
Photo The Police Museum, the Crime Museum collection