The fired policeman pressed his foot on the arrested person's back in the pipe so that his breathing was blocked to a life-threatening level.
It was does the police department have sufficient grounds to fire a senior constable who was convicted of excessive use of force in the pipe rooms in Lahti?
Yes it was, decided the Hämeenlinna Administrative Court in its recent decision.
The fired policeman had appealed his dismissal to the administrative court. It dismissed the man's appeal.
The senior constable has been sentenced with the force of law for the arrest situation that took place at the Lahti police station in 2019, where the arrested man's breathing was blocked in a life-threatening manner.
A policeman pressed his foot on the upper back of the man lying on his stomach for almost a minute and a half. The police continued to press, even though the man had stopped resisting the police he had started earlier.
The arrested man was also held on the ground by several other persons. He had behaved aggressively before.
The man became lifeless in the situation. The Court of Appeal characterized his condition at the time as life-threatening.
The case has previously been called in public Lahti's pipe assault, but in the end the verdict was for a crime other than assault.
The senior constable was sentenced in Eastern Finland's Court of Appeal for gross injury and breach of duty to an 80-day fine.
The police department justified the dismissal of the senior constable by saying that confidence in the man's ability to follow legislation and regulations had gone.
According to the police department, the pipe incident exceeded the dismissal threshold on its own.
However, the police department also referred to the man's previous conviction for 38 traffic violations in its dismissal decision. He was guilty of violations by driving slightly over the speed limit on the police surveillance cameras.
Redundant in his appeal to the administrative court, the senior constable considered that there was no particularly compelling reason for the firing. He demanded that the decision be overturned.
The administrative court of Hämeenlinna concluded in its assessment that the man is unsuitable for his previous police work. According to the court, the man's behavior endangered trust in the fairness and impartiality of the police.
According to the administrative court, the police department had a particularly compelling reason to terminate the man's employment.
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