Santeri Sivonen selected Police Officer of the Year 2018

Detective Chief Inspector Santeri Sivonen, commanding officer of the UHKAT (Threats) function at the National Bureau of Investigation, has been selected as the Police Officer of the Year 2018, said a press release issued by National Police Board.

The UHKAT function is tasked with promoting the ability of law enforcement authorities to identify serious threats and individuals causing concern and to prevent serious threatening situations from arising. The UHKAT function participates in the investigation of approximately 400 cases a year.

The objective of the UHKAT function is to reveal and prevent serious targeted violence from happening in as early stages as possible. The function assesses the threat levels of matters revealed and strives to identify individuals raising concerns.

According to the nomination criteria for the Police Officer of the Year, showing an optimistic approach and professional and cooperative skills – being a team player – Detective Chief Inspector Santeri Sivonen has been developing the UHKAT function with determination and at his own initiative.

“Santeri Sivonen has identified and internalized the meaning of extensive cooperation, not only between law enforcement authorities, but also in relation to professionals in various other sectors,” the grounds for the nomination stated.

Detective Chief Inspector Santeri Sivonen commends his own team for their high enthusiasm for work and their professional competence. Every member of the team adds something important to the work done collectively.

“Primarily, the team supports the work of police departments in the identification, detection and prevention of threats of targeted violence,” said Sivonen.

The team participates in the investigation of cases by doing interviews and assessments and by other means, if necessary.

“Our team develops methods and trains police department staffs to recognise threats and to address them in compliance with a joint model,” Sivonen added

Santeri Sivonen studied social sciences and became a university researcher. While involved in this work, he got interested in police duties and applied to police training.

“In police work, I saw an opportunity to do concrete work with other people. Being a police officer gives me new perspectives on people,” he said.

Sivonen has been working as a police officer for 16 years, the first four of them in monitoring and emergency call duties on the field.

Sivonen worked for a long time in the criminal intelligence and analysis unit (PCB) at the National Bureau of Investigation, consisting of the members of the police, customs and Border Guard staff in 2006-2016. In 2010-2016, Sivonen acted as the team leader of the unit.

In the PCB unit, his duties included preparing different risk and threat assessments, developing operations and forms of cooperation, analyses tasks and cooperation with other authorities.

Since 2016, Sivonen has been working as the commanding officer of the UHKAT function established at the National Bureau of Investigation.

This year’s Police Officer of the Year award is the 43rd of its kind. The recipient is decided by JCI Helsinki, the Finnish Police Federation and the National Police Board.