Danish gamer cops - 5th July 2023

At police headquarters in Denmark, video games are part of the job. Whether it's playing popular online games like Counter-Strike, checking out Twitch, Discord, Instagram, Facebook or even TikTok, the aim is to make the internet a safer place for children and adults.

Just like on the street, members of the patrol are visible online in their uniforms. They hope this will encourage young people to talk to them about any problems as well as deter criminals. Jeppe Rimer Torup is part of the online unit.

Jeppe Rimer Torup: "And when we're online, they can see us as police officer wearing the uniform. And then they can, maybe if we, for example, is playing Counter-Strike, we say, hey, we need, we are two officers playing, we need three volunteers from the chat, you can come, come play with us. So slowly, we have been making our, you know, increase in followers. Right now we have around 23,000 followers on Twitch."

In addition to the 23,000 followers on Twitch, the online unit now has 127,000 followers on TikTok, 10,000 on Facebook and 6,000 on Instagram. Whilst working online, they reach out to young people saying 'if you want to talk to us or ask questions - we're here'. So far, they've received 5,200 tip-offs.

The unit was established in 2022 following a surge in online crime during the Covid pandemic. Young people gaming and isolated from friends found themselves particularly vulnerable.

Sisse Birkebaek's head of the online patrol unit.

Sisse Birkebaek: "The criminality is, is going online as well. We see a lot of grooming and trying to harass the youngsters, trying to, to take money from the youngsters, stealing skins in the gaming community as well."

It's widely considered that the unit is doing a good job in helping to keep people safe according to Birkebaek.

Sisse Birkebaek: "When we tell them about what our main target is, is just to be present and try to, to make it a safer place in the internet, especially for, for youngsters, then they are actually quite happy about it, especially the parents."