Individual officers may decide whether to pursue

Decisions during police pursuits may rest with an individual officer, although the use of police powers is governed by detailed rules, Yle reports. The situations themselves can develop very quickly.

Yle examined how police are trained for pursuits following a moped gathering in Tuusula last Saturday and the pursuit that followed it. The questions were answered by Asko Sartanen, head of the Police University College’s unit for supervisory and emergency response skills, and Ari Järveläinen, a senior police officer at the National Police Board. Neither commented on the individual case.

Police call pursuits tracking a fleeing person

Police training on pursuits is based on theory, practical exercises and later refresher training, Sartanen said.

The situations are governed by detailed rules. The Police Act forms the basis, alongside regulations, lower-level norms and the National Police Board’s internal rules. Police work is also guided by general principles, including proportionality and the principle of causing the least harm.

“Police activity, particularly the use of force, is very extensively governed and regulated. In real life, situations are often very quick, but officers should be able to assess them through all these rules,” Sartanen said.

Police degree students receive several dozen hours of driving training over several study periods.

Force must match the suspected offence

Whether police can begin a pursuit depends on what the person is suspected of having done and on the circumstances known at the time. Legally, the use of force is involved in such a situation, Sartanen said.

If police order a driver to stop and the driver does not comply, officers may consider different means of using force. These include driving ahead of the vehicle, using an obstacle, boxing it in, driving into it, threatening it with a police vehicle, using a spike mat or creating a roadblock.

“In individual police operations, officers are constantly weighing which means of force to choose and how to use it,” Sartanen said.

The decision takes into account all information available at the time, including the driver’s experience and age and whether the vehicle is a car or a two-wheeled vehicle, which carries a greater risk of injury to the driver.

The latest rules issued by the National Police Board also place emphasis on managing situations. The more demanding the situation, the more important the command structure becomes.

An investigation into police conduct in the Tuusula case is examining the officer’s role at the scene and whether there were grounds for a forced stop. The officer is suspected of breach of official duty, aggravated endangerment of traffic safety and causing injury.

Police, in turn, preliminarily suspect the 15-year-old who fled on a moped of aggravated endangerment of traffic safety, driving a vehicle without authorisation and a vehicle offence.

Pursuits normally use both blue and red lights

Several videos of Saturday’s incident have been made public. They show only blue lights flashing at the front of the unmarked police car involved in forcing the moped to the side.

Police can signal a driver to stop verbally, with a hand signal or, during an emergency response, by flashing blue and red lights simultaneously.

“The starting point in a pursuit is that the warning lights are on, both red and blue,” Järveläinen said.

The threshold for using warning equipment is low because it improves the vehicle’s visibility, police officers’ occupational safety and the safety of other road users, he said.