The Helsinki Administrative Court has overturned the Helsinki Police Department's decision to fire a police sergeant due to inappropriate WhatsApp messages.
The court ruled that the dismissal was illegal on procedural grounds – because the department did not make a decision within a reasonable time after finding out about the messages and did not legally notify the officer before his hearing that it was considering his dismissal. The court did not take a stand on the content of the messages.
The sergeant was fired last year when his superiors discovered that he and another policeman had been exchanging WhatsApp messages that insulted immigrants and others for more than two years. The department decided that the messages violated basic rights and human dignity and exhibited a reckless attitude towards them.
The messages were found when the National Bureau of Investigation investigated a group whose members shared ties to the security industry and a sympathetic view of extreme right-wing ideology.
Slurs against politicians, leftists and minority groups
The subjects of discussion in the group included various politicians and leftists as well as immigrants, Somalis, Muslims and Romani. The group members were located in various parts of the Uusimaa region, which includes Helsinki.
According to the police department, the sergeant's behaviour had seriously undermined its confidence that he could properly carry out his duties, as well as confidence in the department itself.
In a statement, the sergeant downplayed the messages as "bad jokes" that did not reflect his actual views. He cited freedom of speech and the fact that the messages were not visible to the public. He also said that he had carried out his duties impeccably and saw the dismissal as unreasonable.
Dismissals in southeast Finland declared legal
Before the latest Helsinki case, another administrative court dismissed a similar appeal by a police inspector who was sacked from the Southeast Finland Police Department.
In that case, the Administrative Court of Eastern Finland upheld the dismissal, which was based on the inspector's extreme right-wing views and messages. The inspector had held WhatsApp conversations with another police officer who was suspected of a crime over a period of about three years beginning in 2017.
Six police officers and several civilians were the target of the broader investigation that uncovered the WhatsApp communications. In late 2021, criminal cases involving three police officers and six security employees were handed over for prosecution. Those cases are still pending.
All told, the messages and extreme right-wing opinions turned up by the investigation led to the firing of at least five policemen within less than a year beginning in Helsinki in May 2021. The following month, the Eastern Uusimaa police department fired a senior police officer who was also suspected of having far-right connections to Ukraine.
All of the dismissed officers have appealed their cases to administrative courts.
