The Police and Border Guard College prepares future police and border guard officers whose mission is to maintain public order and ensure people’s safety on land, at sea, and at the national border. The programme is highly practical, value-based, and closely linked to real-life work in law enforcement, providing experience for acting swiftly and responsibly in situations where lives and rights are at stake.
The curriculum covers law, criminology, crisis management, communication skills, tactical training, and other professional subjects that equip students for responsible and multifaceted work in the field of internal security. Strong emphasis is placed on practical exercises and cooperation with different units of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board.
Graduates work as police and border guard officers across Estonia, contributing to the creation of a safe and just society.
Studies are conducted in Estonian and are open only to Estonian citizens.
Police and Border Guard College Key research directions
The research focuses on community policing, intervention strategies, surveillance practices, the use of (direct) coercion, tactical solutions and the management of resource-intensive events. For example, the possibilities and bottlenecks in the special treatment of minors, the potential of smart and science-based use of speed cameras for ensuring traffic safety, the use of special tools and the impact of stress on the police officers' decision-making have been studied.
The research examines the training, operational use, and effectiveness of service dogs in police work. One example is a study initiated under the leadership of the Service Dog Training Centre in cooperation with the Estonian University of Life Sciences, which focuses on evidence-based assessment of the smell perception of service dogs in order to address knowledge gaps concerning the canine olfactory perception. The aim is to experimentally validate the amounts and excipients used in ecstasy detection training in order to improve and standardise training and training protocols for service dogs.
The training of the police, the development and implementation of tools and the legal frameworks that guide police work, including law enforcement, criminal and procedural law, are examined. The college's lecturers have studied the optimal measures for the use of direct coercion and participated as authors in the compilation of the new annotated edition of the Law Enforcement Act, published in 2024. The Department of Offence Proceedings is involved in the COST action initiated by Halmstad University (Sweden) to address the practical problems at the intersection of cybersecurity, digital forensics and critical infrastructure.
Research focuses on strategies, policies and practices related to border and migration control, which are examined at both national and international levels. For example, the lecturer of the Department of Border Management participates in the academy’s research group for "Illegal Trade in Estonian Seaports”.
The college and its partners contribute to a vision of a highly educated police officer, which you can read about here. In order to develop police training, cooperation is conducted with police authorities, practitioners and partners from other countries; in addition to that, we participate in the international research project RECPOL.