Moped meetups put heavy strain on police in Uusimaa

Informal moped meetups have become a major summer phenomenon in the Uusimaa region, with some gatherings attracting hundreds of young people and generating large numbers of emergency calls, Yle reports. Police say traffic rules are frequently broken, and officers in western Uusimaa have been pelted with stones and spat at.

Yle interviewed young riders in Vantaa and Teuva on Tuesday. They discussed police use of force, including a case in Tuusula in which a moped rider was hit by a police vehicle, and questioned whether young people can still trust the police.

In western Uusimaa, meetups are held across a wide area from Vihti to Raseborg. They create a significant workload for police, according to Inspector Hannu Kontola of the Western Uusimaa Police Department.

“They generate a huge number of emergency calls, and people find this extremely disruptive,” Kontola said.

He said traffic rules were broken at the meetups “to an absurd degree”. The gatherings usually take place at weekends, when police already have many other duties, and young people rarely notify the police in advance.

A moped meetup is generally an informal gathering attended by young people on mopeds, light motorcycles or other vehicles. Participants may travel in large groups from one place to another.

Under Finland’s Assembly Act, moped meetups are classified as public events. Events involving more than 30 vehicles should be reported to the authorities in advance.

Kontola said some young people welcomed the police presence, while others believed officers ruined the event. In his area, police officers have been pelted with stones and spat at, and attempts have been made to damage police equipment.

Police access to the gatherings has also been obstructed, and large groups have at times moved threateningly towards officers, Kontola said.

Police concerned about changing attitudes

Police Superintendent Ari Järveläinen, who appeared on Yle’s A-studio programme, said he was concerned about changing attitudes towards the police among young people attending the meetups.

“Extreme actors are more indifferent than before,” Järveläinen said.

Inspector Seppo Porokka said moped meetups placed a “very moderate” workload on police in eastern Finland. In North Karelia and South and North Savo, the events have not generally involved major problems.

There have been occasional disturbances, Porokka said, but the gatherings are mainly well organised and the young people themselves try to keep them orderly.

Some riders nevertheless seek confrontation by fleeing from the police or trying to provoke officers into starting a pursuit. Porokka said the phenomenon had existed at least since the 1990s, but social media had added a new dimension in recent years.

Videos recorded during the incidents, and possibly edited, are widely shared on social media platforms, Porokka said. He would like to break down old assumptions about confrontation between police and young people.

“In my view, that belongs to the past,” Porokka said.

Cars and motorcycles join the gatherings

The summer of moped meetups has been unusually calm in South Karelia and Kymenlaakso, according to Chief Superintendent Jukka Lankinen of the Southeast Finland Police Department. There have been around ten gatherings across the two regions since the beginning of May.

Meetups are no longer limited to mopeds, Lankinen said. Motorcycles and cars are also taking part.

Although the gatherings themselves have not required significant police resources, moped riding more generally continues to do so. Police must intervene in cases involving driving without a licence, modified mopeds, driving under the influence, wheelies in traffic and mopeds that are otherwise not roadworthy.