Police of Denmark

Officers in shirt, pants and light armour

The police of Denmark (da: Politiet) is the interior part of the Danish legitimate force providers (the Danish military being the exterior). The police are empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order.

Organisation

MC's escorting an ambulance

The common police of Denmark consists of 12 districts each managed by a director and two minor districts in Greenland and the Faroe Islands, run by a local chief of police. The district of Copenhagen is somewhat different organized due to its size and tasks.

Besides the regular districts other organisations exist that work outside the common police:

• Rigspolitiet - a nationwide policeforce with specialized tasks such as Budgets and Accounts, Building Surveying Department and the Data Investigating Department
• Politiets Efterretningstjeneste - the national security intelligence agency of Denmark
• Politiets Aktionsstyrke - the special forces unit of the Danish police

Equipment

Uniform

Parked police vehicle

The common uniform is a light blue shirt with the police insignia on the sleeve. Usually a tie is also worn. Rank-insignia is worn on the shoulders. The pants are dark blue with reflective patches. Black shoes are also included in the standard uniform. Special tactical suits are made of flame-resistant materials and are worn in situations requiring such equipment. The tactical suit also includes a protected helmet.

Vehicles

For the daily duties the patrol-vehicles are white or darke blue, with a blue strobe-light or flashing light and the word "POLITI" painted on the side in a reflective and clear paint. The most commonly used used patrol vehicles are Ford Mondeo, Opel Vectra and Peugeot 406. Other models are also used. They includes Peugeot 307, Opel Astra and Toyota Landcruiser. The Peugeot 607 is also used but only as security attachments for cabinet members and the royal court. Small detachments typically use VW Transporters, while VW LTs and Ford Transit mini-buses are used in larger operations, which require a lot of manpower (demonstrations, soccer-matches and larger civil obediances). In extreme events, a variation of the MB Vario is used. It's generally known as the Dutchman's vehicle (in Danish Hollændervogn). This name derives from the fact, that these vehicles are fitted in the Netherlands as light APC's with enforced sides and fire-resistant coating. They are both used as light APCs in events of demonstrations or public disturbances and as general transportation of large numbers of arrestees. Other vehicles in use are the Mercedes-Benz Vito (used by both Central Turnout Leaders, a kind of on-street watch commanders) and Nissan Patrols used by the mounted police squads with a horse carrier attached.

The traffic police also uses civil vans for automatic traffic control. These are usually VW Transporters, Mercedes Benz Vitos, Toyota Hiaces and several others.

Certain rural police officers use civilian vehicles with a dismountable magnet roof flash.

Yamaha FJR1300A (2006) used by Danish police

For traffic regulation and escorting VIPs Yamaha FJR1300A, Honda ST1300A motorcycles are used, K1200RS and BMW K1200GT are mainly used (slowly replacing old BMW K1100LT and BMW R1100RT).

Weapons

The standard service handgun is the Heckler & Koch (H&K) 9mm Compact pistol with 13 rounds. For special tasks the H&K MP5 sub-machine gun is used. Officers are also equipped with soft weapons like batons and pepper spray cans.

Law about police enforcement

The operation of Danish police is regulated in Law about police enforcement (da: Lov om politiets virksomhed), commonly known as The Police law (da: politiloven) of 9 July 2004.

This law was applied on August 1st, 2004 and the first paragraph states that:

"The police must work in order to ensure security, safety, peace and order in the society. The police must promote this purpose through preventive, helping and enforcing work"

The second paragraph states that other areas of police jurisdiction include:

1. preventing criminal actions, disturbances of the public peace and order and danger to single citizens and the public safety
2. stopping criminal actions and investigating and prosecuting criminal actions
3. support the citizens in dangerous situations
4. control and inspecting in order with the current laws and regulations
5. supporting other agencies under current laws and regulations
6. performing other tasks, under current laws and regulations, as well as other tasks which have a natural attachment to police duties.

And finally, the third paragraph: "The police can in other situations, than those mentioned in laws, only interfer with the citizens by this law".

Military police

Danish navy military police

The military police (MP) in Denmark are police units within the armed forces branches. Each branch has its own MP-corps though they often work together and carry similar insignias.

MP-personnel typically wears either branch-specific display dress uniforms with white MP-shoulder markings or the branch-common daily battle dress uniforms, with a red beret.

MP-personnel generally doesn't have elevated legal authority towards civilians in non-military places, but only towards military personnel and on military installations (also public accessible places like Holmen naval base in Copenhagen). On some occasions MP-personnel can support the civilian police in certain tasks, but will only have slightly more legal authority than civilians - similar to the police home guard.

Police Home Guard

Police home guard performing traffic control duties

The Danish police can call upon the assistance from a section of the Danish home guard; the police home guard. The police home guard consists of 47 companies, each led by professional police officers.

The volunteers are mainly used for traffic control at festivals, searches for victims and guarding community installations and are never used in tasks involving direct confrontation with civilians (riot control or planned arrests). These companies are part of the Army Home Guard.

They are dressed in the branch-common daily battle dress uniforms, green berets and bright yellow vests with the text "POLITI HJEMMEVÆRNET" (POLICE HOME GUARD).

The police home guard has slightly more legal authority than regular citizens, when the service they provide calls for it, but are always under the supervision of the civilian police.

External links

• Official website of the Danish police
• A gallery of danish police vehicles is available on Wikimedia Commons.