Police of Denmark
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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.
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[edit] Organisation
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 exists that works 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
[edit] Equipment
[edit] Uniform
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 a dark blue with reflective patches and shoes are black. Special tactical suits made of flame-resistant is also worn from time to time. Usually a helmet with visor is also worn then.
[edit] Vehicles
For the daily works 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 types also used includes Peugeot 307, Opel Astra and Toyota Landcruiser. The Peugeot 607 is also used but only for security attachments for cabinet members and the royal court. Small detachments typically use VW Transporters, while VW LTs and Ford Transit mini-busses 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. For both this use and general transport of arrestees a number of large busses of different makes and models are used. Other seen vehicles are the MB 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 normally VW Transporters, Mercedes Benz Vitos and Toyota Hiaces amongst others[1].
Certain rural police officers use civilian vehicles with a dismountable magnet roof flash. These vehicles can be of any make, but given the nature of their operational area, 4x4's are mostly used.
For traffic regulation and escorting VIPs Yamaha FJR1300A, Honda ST1300A motorcycles are used[2], K1200RS and BMW K1200GT are mainly used (slowly replacing old BMW K1100LT and BMW R1100RT).
A gallery of danish police vehicles is available on Wikimedia Commons.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 put into work on the 1. August 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 shall promote this pourpose though preventing, helping and enforced work"
The second paragraph states that the works of the police is:
- to prevent criminal actions, disturbance of the public peace and order and danger to single citizens and the public safety
- to put criminal actions to an end and investigate and prosecute criminal actions
- to support the citizens in dangerous situations
- to control and inspect in order to current law and regulations
- to support other angencies under current law and regulations and
- to perform other tasks, under current law and regulations, as well as other tasks which has a natural attachment to police works.
And finally the third paragraph: "The police can in other situations, than those mentioned in laws, only interfer with the citizens by this law".
[edit] 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 carries similar insignia.
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.
[edit] Police Home Guard
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 where there are risks of direct confrontation with civilians (riot control or planned arrests). The companies are part of the Army Home Guard.
They are dressed in the branch-common daily battle dress uniforms, green berets and bright yellow wests with the text "POLITI HJEMMEVÆRNET".
The police home guard can have slightly more legal authority than other citizens, when the service they provide calls for it, but are always under the supervision of the civilian police.
