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DF urges government to fast-track CCTV registry
Ben Hamilton
September 28th, 2016
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This article is more than 8 years old.
Following 158 vehicle burnings in less than two months, the time for action is now, urges MP
The 158 vehicles set on fire over the last two months in Greater Copenhagen is an unacceptable number, claims Dansk Folkeparti (DF).
DF has urged the government to step up its efforts to install cameras on the capital’s streets.
READ MORE: Are the car burnings a cry for help?
Government needs to act!
Speaking to the DR P4 radio station yesterday, DF spokesperson Peter Koefoed Poulsen said his party would like the justice minister, Søren Pind, to fast-track plans for a CCTV registry that have already been approved by a majority in Parliament.
“It is completely ludicrous that ordinary Danish citizens should be concerned about where they park their car in fear it will be set alight,” said Poulsen.
READ MORE: DF wants more video surveillance
Police’s voluntary registry
In February, the police confirmed it was putting together a registry of the city’s private security cameras, but that the owners’ participation in the one-year pilot scheme was voluntary.
Following the terrorist attack in Copenhagen a year earlier, it transpired the police were able to trace gunman Omar El-Hussein’s movements and catch him using footage from hundreds of private cameras.
A grey area
However, according to DR, around 75 percent of these cameras were violating the CCTV Act, although the police are unlikely to prosecute.
“We do not think it’s fair to say one day, ‘Hello, we are from the police, we’re looking for a terrorist, may we see your video’ and then show up the next day with a fine,” Jørgen Bergen Skov, chief superintendent of the Copenhagen Police, told DR earlier this year.
But with no sizeable registry, and the government dragging its feet over installing its own CCTV network, the police may very well need to negotiate this grey area again to find the footage to stop the vehicle burnings.
MP urges citizens to help
Speaking to the same radio station, Socialdemokatiet spokesperson Trine Bramsen said that more help was needed from citizens. “We must send a very strong call to all citizens to help the police as best they can,” she told DR P4
“But if the police come to us and say they lack the resources, well then the task becomes a political one.”
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