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Copenhagen residents feel safer

TheCopenhagenPost
June 9th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Capital’s annual survey of personal safety finds that residents feel more secure than ever

Loud and clear: city mayor Frank Jensen has been quite outspoken on the matter in recent months (photo: Nyborg)

The 2016 Copenhagen Personal Safety Survey has found the vast majority of the city’s residents feel they live in a safe neighbourhood. The survey found that people felt more safe than in the previous year. Just 6 percent of residents reported feeling unsafe in their neighbourhood.

The decline comes despite many residents being affected by the terrorist attack on 14 February 2105 that left two dead, as well as similar incidents in other European cities.

Just over 6 percent of the respondents said they had changed their behaviour due to the attack.

“Personal safety is the foundation of a good and free life,” said Copenhagen  Mayor Frank Jensen.

“That’s why I am pleased to see that Copenhagen residents refuse to live in fear because of the tragic incidents we have witnessed.”

Ups and downs
Although residents felt safer overall, personal safety declined in some neighbourhoods. More residents in Østerbro, Valby, Outer Nørrebro  and Amager East said their neighbourhoods were unsafe.

On the other hand, the number of neighbourhoods where more than 10 percent of the residents feltunsafe has fallen, fell from nine in 2006 to just two (Outer Østerbro and Bispebjerg) this year.

“We’re seeing the results of our efforts to change the situation in the neighbourhoods where people felt unsafe,” said Jensen.

“There have been incidents in Outer Nørrebro and the Islands Brygge area, but the police are working closely with our community outreach program to get things under control.”

READ MORE: Fewer burglaries in Copenhagen

Jensen said he was pleased with the improvements, but that there was still work to do.

“Everyone in Copenhagen should feel safe, and we’re not going to stop our efforts until they do.”

The full results of this year’s Copenhagen Personal Safety Survey are available online at tryghedsundersogelsen.kk.dk (in Danish only).


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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.”