13.5.   The Danish police and courts

There is one national police force in Denmark comprising a total of approx. 10,000 police officers. The force is divided in 54 police districts with the personnel primarily being distributed in accordance with the traditional types of offence. Each police district is led by a Chief Constable, who has a background in law, and has made his career through the public prosecution or the Ministry of Justice.

13.5.2.   The prosecution:

There are approx. 250 prosecutors in Denmark. They are also distributed by police districts, and have the same head as the police, namely the Chief Constable. The prosecution’s work is coordinated by a Director of Public Prosecutions and 8 Public Prosecutors, each of which supervise a number of police districts.

13.5.3.   The courts:

There are approx. 100 lower courts, 2 High Courts (the Eastern and Western High Courts) and one Supreme Court. There are no administrative courts. The permanent judges have to have a background and career in law. Lay assessors (lay judges) assist in some kinds of criminal cases, including the most important criminal environmental cases. For the latter the lower court will be constituted by 1 juridical judge and 2 lay assessors, while the High Court will be constituted by 3 juridical judges and 3 lay assessors.

Examining magistrates are not known in Denmark. Here it is the duty of the police to investigate a case. Thereafter the prosecution evaluates the case, formulates an indictment (if one is warranted), and submits the case to the court.

Facing the prosecutor in court is the accused, who is nearly always attended by a lawyer.

13.5.4.   The path into the judicial system taken by criminal environmental cases:

When environmental cases are reported to the police, it is usually done by the environmental authority. While in principle all negligent breaches of the law are punishable, only a minor part of all breaches are actually reported to the police. This is partly because it takes very little to be in breach of the environmental regulations, and partly because the number of penal provisions - including the conditions in rulings - is so great. Considerable sorting is therefore done before a case is reported to the police. The 300-500 cases that are reported to the police each year fall into two main groups.

One group comprises those cases where the breach of the law cannot be stopped by reasonable administrative means, e.g. an enterprise that continues to breach the conditions of its emission authorization. The aim of the police prosecution is to have the enterprise convicted so that it realizes that it is hopeless to continue. This group also includes those cases brought in order to make the branch in question realize that the regulations must be complied with, e.g. farmers’ cases about field burning of straw and failure to leave a 2 m wide cultivation-free zone alongside watercourses.

The other main group comprises those cases where the breach has been so serious that the environmental authorities cannot just overlook it. It is expected of an environmental authority that it takes serious breaches to court. These cases concern large unauthorized emissions, etc.

Prior to reporting a case to the police the environmental authority has to evaluate whether the case will hold up in court. If there is a very great possibility of acquittal, it is not reasonable to submit the enterprise to the resultant negative publicity that starts as soon as the report is submitted to the police.

Number of police reports submitted on infringements*of the Environmental Protection Act(1985-94)

In the Counties and the Municipalities it is usually the politicians who make the decision on reporting cases to the police. However, there is a tendency for the Counties and larger Municipalities to delegate this responsibility to the administration.

In principle everyone can report a breach of the law to the police. And in fact it does happen that private persons do so - for example neighbours or environmental organizations. If the report cannot immediately be dismissed as being obviously unfounded, the police will usually request the environmental authority to evaluate the case, and only take the matter further if the environmental authority is in support.

When the police receive a report from a supervisory authority they often let a prosecutor examine the case; if it contains any serious deficiencies, it is returned to the authority.If all is in order, the next step is that the police charge the enterprise and interview those involved in the case. The new information that the police can add to the case material is the statements taken at the interviews. The technical basis for the case, i.e. analyses, photographs, supervision reports, etc., have to be provided by the environmental authority.

When the investigation is complete the case will often be put before the environmental authority again together with a request for confirmation that the authority wishes to press charges, and if the answer is affirmative, how great the fine should be. Many charges are dropped at that stage because the enterprise has rectified the situation that gave rise to the charges. A visit by a uniformed policeman makes an impression on many enterprises.

Before the local prosecutor draws up the indictment in a large environmental case he has to involve his Public Prosecutor. A number of the major cases are also put before the Danish EPA, and the Agency’s proposal for the penalty will normally be what the prosecutor puts to the court.

Around half of all criminal environmental cases are settled before coming to court. When an enterprise admits guilt it can decide to accept a fine by the Chief Constable. There is no limit to fines for cases that are settled in that way. Some enterprises prefer that way of settling a case, either because they accept the fine as being reasonable or because they want to be spared the extensive media coverage that accompanies major environmental cases. There is thus no system in Denmark whereby an environmental authority can issue fines to enterprises on a purely administrative basis.