The chair of the Danish Judges’ Association, Mikael Sjöberg, has expressed concerns regarding the police use of facial recognition technology without judicial oversight, comparing it to wiretapping. Sjöberg highlights that this method is a “very intrusive legal remedy” and therefore should require court approval. Currently, police have the ability to use facial recognition without a judge’s consent, a practice that the chairman is urging the Parliament (Folketinget) to regulate.

This call for regulation comes in light of gang-related crime, where young individuals from Sweden are recruited for violent acts in Denmark. In this context, facial recognition is seen as a tool for scrutinizing surveillance footage, a claim that Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard is not dismissing. Despite the argument that law-abiding citizens should not fear such technology, Sjöberg points out that surveillance can reveal very private details and therefore signifies a broader intrusion into the lives of citizens.

Earlier this year, the Justice Minister stated that the police should evaluate the use of the technology themselves. This approach was criticized by High Court Judge Morten Uhrskov Christensen, who warned against passivity regarding technological surveillance, referring to developments in China.

During a press conference on August 12 with the Justice Minister and Chief of Police Thorkild Fogde concerning the involvement of young Swedish individuals in gang crime, facial recognition was again a topic of discussion. Fogde emphasized that they would begin with the least intrusive technologies and assured that Danish citizens need not fear “Chinese conditions,” a reference to the extensive surveillance practices seen in China.

Thus, there are now questions regarding whether Danish legislation sufficiently protects individual privacy in light of new technological capabilities for surveillance.