Officers from the Copenhagen Police’s emergency services and local police must step in daily to drive prisoner transports for the Danish Prison and Probation Service.
It writes Berlingske.
In some cases, this may also apply to the Special Operations Division for the Investigation of Organized Crime.
In 2020, the police district spent a total of 8159 hours driving 586 prisoner transports.
At the end of September this year, the Copenhagen Police had driven 487 hours with a total taximeter, which for the time being ran up to 7268 hours. It shows a statement in which the newspaper has been given access to documents.
The task of transporting detainees from Danish police districts was formally taken over by the Danish Prison and Probation Service in 2019.
And the police should not spend time working as drivers for the Danish Prison and Probation Service, the message from several parties reads.
– It’s a colossal problem. It is important that highly qualified police officers, which we have a great shortage of, do not drive around with – if I may say so – simple pickpockets, says the Liberal Party’s legal spokesman, Preben Bang Henriksen, to Berlingske.
He will include the problem in the current negotiations on the next multi-year agreement for the Danish Prison and Probation Service and ask Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup (S) for a statement.
Peter Skaarup, who is the legal spokesman for the Danish People’s Party (DF), wants the same, Berlingske writes.
According to the agreement between the Danish Prison and Probation Service and the police, the police must step in if the Danish Prison and Probation Service cannot handle a prisoner transport.
This is what Peter Dahl, senior police inspector at the Copenhagen Police, tells the newspaper. According to him, there is “enough need to internally align expectations a little better”.
It has not been possible for Berlingske to interview a representative from the Danish Prison and Probation Service.
But John Vestergaard, center director in the Directorate, writes in a written answer that there is a shortage of prison and transport officers at the Danish Prison and Probation Service.
He also writes that the agreement, “which describes the overall framework for the task, is under evaluation in the probation service and the National Police”.
Nick Hækkerup replies in a written quote to the newspaper that “the conditions for our staff and the capacity of the prisons will be central topics in the multi-year negotiations for the Danish Prison and Probation Service”.