LYON, France -- In the wake of Tuesday’s school shootings in Finland which left 11 people dead, INTERPOL’s Secretary General Ronald K. Noble has expressed condolences to the bereaved on behalf of its membership as he called for an objective assessment of the role of law enforcement in such events.

Following questions surrounding the police’s handling of the case, Mr Noble said preventing such crimes was not something that depended solely on police work, and that to second-guess and apportion blame on law enforcement authorities after the fact was unwarranted when police worked within the framework of national laws.

The issue of whether Finnish police could have prevented Tuesday’s massacre arose after it emerged that the perpetrator of the killings, Matti Juhani Saari, aged 22, had been questioned by the authorities on Monday after posting on the Internet a video clip of himself at a shooting range, in which he foreshadowed his attack.

“Any time a serious crime occurs, the country or community concerned needs to find out what happened in a comprehensive and objective way and to determine whether there are measures that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of similar crimes in the future,” Secretary General Noble said.

“What should not happen is for anyone to point a finger and to hold the police responsible simply because a serious crime has occurred. Attributing blame to law enforcement as a first reaction to such a tragic event serves no valid purpose and could undermine public confidence in the police not only in the country or community concerned but around the world.”

He proposed instead that the country, community and police service(s) concerned should work together to find out what happened and to do all in their power to put in place the right laws, practices and educational programmes to reduce the likelihood of such crimes happening again.

As part of these steps, Secretary General Noble suggested that countries needed to consider putting in place a regulatory framework that would allow firearm licenses to be revoked and weapons repossessed from people who have engaged in conduct suggesting they might pose a threat with their guns.

Tuesday's shootings echoed another in November last year in the Finnish town of Tuusula, which left eight people and the lone gunman dead.

With most regions of the world having experienced similar tragedies, including the US (Virginia Tech, 2007, Columbine school, Denver, 1999), Germany (Erfurt, 2002), Yemen (Sanaa, 1997) and Scotland (Dunblane, 1996), INTERPOL welcomes the opportunity to work with police services from its 186 member countries and National Central Bureaus to help them identify lessons to be learned and shared with other INTERPOL member countries.