Danish online patrols - 5th July 2023

Danish officers no longer just patrol the streets but can also be found gaming online. In an effort to curb cybercrime such as grooming and scamming, officers are playing popular video games like Counter-Strike and even browsing social media platforms such as Twitch, Discord, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.

Replicating their usual street presence, officers visibly patrol the digital world in their uniforms making themselves available to the online public. These measures are intended to create a safe online environment for everyone surfing the web.

Engagement works, says Jeppe Rimer Torup.

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."

The initiative's been a success, gaining a huge online following with 23,000 followers on Twitch, 127,000 on TikTok, 10,000 on Facebook and 6,000 on Instagram. Patrols announce their presence online by directly messaging users 'if you want to talk to us or ask questions - we're here,' - a technique which has already yielded 5,200 leads since 2022.

In response to a wave of cybercrime during the Covid pandemic, the unit was launched in 2022. Young isolated gamers were considered easy targets, according to head of the online patrol unit, Sisse Birkebaek.

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."

There appears to be a consensus that the unit's online presence is making internet users feel safer online, as officer Birkebaek confirms.

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."