Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen has already announced Cabinet’splan to downsize the country’s National Police. In fact, it will be reduced to half its current size, The Local Denmark reported.
While Danish PM plans to cut the police staff across the country, there should a government plan to gain parliamentary support. Mrs Frederiksen revealed her plans to reduce the total number of the National Police by 900 units defined as one year’s full-time work (årsværk), which corresponds to halving its current size.
For Denmark, such talk of halving the police force sounds surprising and even drastic, taking into account that refugees are worsening the criminal situation month by month. Moreover, Frederiksen’s plan does not correspond to having half as many police officers. In reality, it’s vital to note that savings from the reduced workforce of the national police will be diverted to local policing, according to Frederiksen’s plan.
The National Police is Denmark’s senior police authority and is tasked with directing police policy and strategy across the country, including coordination and support in local police regions. It is also the authority under which specialist units and the police intelligence service (PET) fall.
Socialists in Denmark are sceptical over police’s workforce reducing
This week, Danish PM faced a lot of critics after revealing her plans to reduce National Police. Probably, the problem is such a dramatic reduction.
“We want to strengthen local police. I think we have underestimated how much it means to people to have a local police station,” Karina Lorentzen Dehnhardt, justice spokesperson with the Socialist People’s Party (SF), said.
The socialists afraid that it can not be done without destroying some of the very important functions of the National Police. Generally speaking, there are a lot of specialist units in forensics, cybercrime, prevention and IT.
As the SF spokesperson said, the downsizing would be problematic if it was to weaken these areas of the National Police. Meanwhile, Frederiksen defends her decision, stressing the target of boosting the number of people working in local police departments through the plan: up to 20 new local police stations across the country will also be established.
