police The NPM aims to make regular visits to at least the police prisons of the largest police departments. Every inspection to a police department by the Deputy-Ombudsman will also include an inspection to the police prison. In addition, the Deputy-Ombudsman will perform extended NPM visit tours of a number of police prisons. The themes of the visits are partly determined by the topics of complaints received, but a special focus will be given to the most vulnerable groups, such as foreign nationals and minors. Based on the visit reports submitted, the National Police Board completed a list of development needs and distributed the list among all police departments during November 2017. Overall, follow ups on recommendations have shown that the issues raised by the NPM have been taken seriously and addressed accordingly. The letter sent by the National Police Board to police departments also indicates that it is assuming its expected active role in the supervision of police prisons. Collaboration between the National Police Board and its legality oversight is described in detail in section 1.2. In 2017, eight inspection visits were made to police prisons. In addition, the visit to Espoo police prison included a visit to the sobering-up station; the findings of this visit are explained under the section on visits to health-care facilities. The police prisons visited by the NPM in 2017 were: – Espoo police prison (42 cells), Western Uusimaa Police Department – Vaasa police prison (32 cells), Ostrobothnia Police Department – Porvoo police prison (22 cells), Eastern Uusimaa Police Department – Kotka police prison (25 cells), Southeastern Finland Police Department – Kouvola police prison (25 cells), Southeastern Finland Police Department – Rovaniemi police prison (22 cells), Lapland Police Department – Sodankylä police prison (7 cells), Lapland Police Department – Inari police prison (4 cells), Lapland Police Department Three of the visits were made to sites where the previous visit had been made within a year and where one of the aims was to follow-up on the practical implementation of the Deputy-Ombudsman’s recommendations (Espoo, Vaasa and Porvoo). Visits to police prisons are usually made unannounced. In 2017, two of the visits were pre-announced (Sodankylä and Inari). This was necessary in order to ensure that someone would be on duty to receive the NPM. As a rule, the detention facilities are empty, and therefore no officers are on site. An external expert on forensic psychiatry was involved in the visits to the Espoo police prison and the City of Espoo sobering-up station. These visits were made during the evening. The key findings and recommendations regarding the visits: Human resources • In two police prisons, police officers were required to serve in guard duties on a weekly basis. In two other police prisons, the police officers were solely responsible for guard duties. The Deputy-Ombudsman referred to the statement by the Police University College in which it was clarified that the basic police training provides the readiness to assist an experienced prison officer in police detention facilities but not to serve independently as a guard. In the Deputy-Ombudsman’s view, this fact should be taken into account in the guarding arrangements in police prisons. The question is about the safety and the rights of the detainees, as well as the legal rights of 21