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Location of Copenhagen video surveillance cameras to be registered

TheCopenhagenPost
February 3rd, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Police say one-year voluntary pilot project will help them fight crime

They know where you are, and now you know where they are (photo: Paweł Zdziarski)

As a consequence of last February’s terrorist attack in Copenhagen, the police are asking that the city’s private security cameras be registered.

They are asking the owners of the cameras to confirm their location and provide contact details in case the authorities should need to access the video. Police say the footage will help them solve more crimes.

However, the one-year pilot program is voluntary and it is up to the owners of the cameras to report the equipment to the police.

READ MORE: Professor warns Denmark is headed for “digital surveillance hell”

Since last year’s terrorist attacks, national police department Rigspolitiet has been researching the best way for police to make use of security cameras, and the result is the program. If it works in the capital, Rigspolitiet would like to see it expanded nationwide.

Cameras helped trap terrorist
Private surveillance cameras helped police trap Omar El-Hussein, the perpetrator of last year’s attacks, but reports have emerged it required an enormous amount of resources to obtain the surveillance material and that it was difficult for officers in the field to use the information.

Søren Pind, the justice minister, has been  under pressure to develop a program since a majority in government agreed last year that there should be a camera register.

“First and foremost, we will create an overview,” Pind told DR Nyheder.

“We will assess if it is good enough or whether we should expand it.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”