The museum in brief

Our museum is located in Tampere and open to the public without an admission fee. Our exhibitions showcase the history and activities of the Finnish police force from medieval times to the present.

The Police Museum offers things to see and experience for people of all ages. Welcome to see our exhibitions and visit Pokela, the activity area for children. At the museum, you can sit behind the wheel of a police van and take a picture of yourself in the suspect registration chair.

Photo the Police Museum, Pia Penttilä

The museum is located in Tampere’s Hervanta district in the premises of the Police University College. The campus area is closed to the public with the exception of the museum that has free access. Our exhibitions are open to all and they make up the most apparent part of our operations.

Our operations also cover many areas that are not as visible to museum guests. The museum curators are involved in the instruction of police students, offering them an insight to the history of the police force and its influence to present-day policing. We coordinate the activities of the Finnish police in the areas of history and traditions, including meetings with the museum contact persons of the police departments.

We keep storage of objects, films and other materials related to the history of the police. All the objects in our collection are not featured in the exhibitions.

Museum in numbers

• Approximately 30,000 visitors a year.
• The collection includes approximately 24,000 objects, 141,000 photographs, 3,900 films or multimedia presentations and 3,000 books.
• The permanent exhibition The Police is Here! features around 340 exhibits.
• The museum is located about 8 km from Tampere city centre.
• Over 90 per cent of the museum guests are happy with their visit (HappyOrNot measurement kiosk).

History

The Police Museum was established in 2004 in conjunction to the National Police School in Tampere. The museum did not initially have its own exhibition facilities, and the first exhibition produced by the museum was exhibited to the public in the Vapriikki Museum Centre in Tampere in 2005.

The museum was able to relocate into its new facilities, designed and built solely for its use, in 2008. The first exhibition in its own facilities opened to the public in September the same year.

The Crime Museum, operated by the National Bureau of Investigation, was merged into the Police Museum in 2019. At this date, the Police Museum began to manage the collections and exhibition activities of the Crime Museum. The exhibition of the Crime Museum is still located in the facilities of the National Bureau of Investigation in Vantaa, but it is not open to the general public. Some of the objects from the collections of the Crime Museum are exhibited at the Police Museum as a part of its exhibitions.

Further information about the Crime Museum on the website of the National Bureau of Investigation

Museum of the Year 2022

The Police Museum received the Museum of the Year 2022 award granted by the Finnish Museums Association and ICOM (International Council of Museums) Finland.

In its criteria for the award, the award jury stated that the concept of the Police Museum is an overall success and that the museum operations show consistent quality and a highly professional approach.

Press release: The Police Museum received the Museum of the Year 2022 award