Suomen poliisi ja pohjoismaiset poliisipäällystökonferenssit 1930-luvulla

Authors

Keywords:

police, police history, Nordic cooperation, police cooperation

Abstract

In the Finnish police, the Nordic countries formed a key reference group in the 1920s. This cooperation deepened and became more systematic in the 1930s. At the same time the first Nordic police chiefs' conferences were organized. In this article, I examine Nordic police cooperation from the perspectives of the conferences and the Finnish police in the 1930s based on policemen’s professional periodicals in Finland, a Nordic publication on criminology and official conference materials. I approach the theme through two dimensions of police cooperation: practice and culture.  The conferences were an expression of the aim for regional cooperation and were linked to the broader internationalization of the police. The conferences became a channel for joint planning and political influencing for the police, even though with minor success. In Finland, Nordic cooperation was seen as practically important and was driven by practical needs and shared challenges, but it could also be viewed as a way of aligning the police with Nordic cultural sphere. The cooperation was primarily motivated by practical reasons, as the internationalization of the police in general. The police sought to develop their cooperation to prevent mobile crime and to develop their practices.

Section
Peer-reviewed article

Published

2025-02-15