A police plan to greatly increase the amount of CCTV monitoring in certain areas of the capital has been shelved as a test system introduced on Copenhagen’s main pedestrian street Strøget does not appear to have had much effect.

“It is extremely costly to both get the data in and archive it, so we have to weigh up the benefits. It does not have any preventive effect. We can use it to investigate some things – and that is good – but CCTV doesn’t really make a difference,” Ch. Supt. Svend Foldager tells Berlingske.

The head of the Forum for Surveillance Studies at Aarhus University, Peter Lauritsen, says the decision seems sensible.

“CCTV is often put in place in order to have a preventive effect; to prevent serious crime. But research shows that CCTV has only a minimal effect on that type of crime. Much of the violence that takes place is not premeditated or takes place under the influence – and here perpetrators don’t think rationally about the consequences of video monitoring,” Lauritsen says.

Copenhagen Counsellor Lars Aslan Rasmussen says he is disappointed with the police decision.

“Experience from Glasgow shows that massive CCTV surveillance does have a preventive effect. It has to be aided by other efforts, but it works. We will continue to put pressure on the police because we believe that Copenhagen should have CCTV monitoring particularly to prevent or solve crimes of vandalism and stabbing,” Aslan Rasmussen tells Berlingske.

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