Finland's highest police official, National Police Commissioner Markku Salminen, is to retire at the age of 60 from the beginning of August for health reasons.
The announcement coincides with a police investigation is being launched into allegations that Salminen may have improperly used his official car for trips between his home and his workplace.
Salminen has served with the police and the penal system for 39 years.
Markku Salminen graduated from the Police Academy in 1969 and got a job with the Helsinki police that same year. Later he took a law degree.
He worked at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) from 1975 to 1997, where he advanced to the position of deputy police chief. He had also served as a local police chief in three different communities, and as an inspector at the Police Department of the Ministry of the Interior.
Salminen became Director-General of the Prison Service in 1998, and he was named Director-General of the Criminal Sanctions Agency in 2001. He took on the task of National Police Commissioner at the Ministry of the Interior in January 2005.
Salminen is facing perhaps the most serious professional challenge in his career this spring, after suspicions were raised that he may have used his official car for unauthorised trips as of 2005.
Salminen has said that he has used the reinforced official car for commuting between his home and his job safety reasons, as the has been the target of threats by criminals for several years.
In March Interior Ministry official Ritva Viljanen asked Salminen for a report on the use of his official car.
