Denmark's online police - 5th July 2023

Police officers in Denmark are online. They're playing video games like Counter-Strike. They're on Facebook and TikTok too. They want the internet to be safe for everyone.

They wear police uniforms online. They want people to see them. They want young people to talk to them. And they want to stop online crime.

They ask for help gaming, says officer 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 online police are popular. They have thousands of followers on social media. They often send messages to young gamers. They can ask the police questions. They told the police about 5,200 crimes online.

Online crimes went up in the Covid pandemic. Young people were away from their friends. Criminals stole from them. In 2022, the police started their online team.

Sisse Birkebaek's an online police officer.

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."

The online police are doing a good job. Young people feel safe online. Parents are happy too.

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."