The National Police Board has completed an internal investigation into how officers handled a demonstration by climate action group Elokapina, the Finnish branch of Extinction Rebellion, in front of the Government Palace in October last year.
The report found that "police operations did not give cause to objections" but that the Helsinki police department's internal communications were not carried out in accordance with guidelines.
Elokapina protestors had chained and glued themselves to the entrance of the building in downtown Helsinki. Police broke up the protest and detained 51 protesters, some of whom remained in custody for more than 24 hours.
Helsinki police later admitted that they failed to correctly assess the security threat posed by the demonstration, and that there were failures in their communications about the event.
There were inconsistencies between the police's view of events and those of the Council of State's emergency preparedness unit, with the police's head of operations believing the demonstration posed a security threat to the Government Palace building and to the people inside.
In a bulletin released at the time, police said that security had deteriorated to such a degree that the president, government ministers and other officials were told to leave the building through alternative routes.
However, President Sauli Niinistö and Education Minister Li Andersson (Left) both disputed this version of events, with Andersson noting that she did "not recognise these dramatic descriptions".
"The choice of words used in the press releases published at the time of the event was partly a mistake. The police service needs to pay more attention to the choice of words in future communications," the National Police Board said in a statement released last year.
According to the report published on Friday, these shortcomings have now been identified by the police department and the required measures have been taken.
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