Police drop Copenhagen search zones

The two search zones that Copenhagen Police established at the end of August, expired on Monday evening, the police wrote in a press release. According to Chief Police Inspector Søren Thomassen, the police make a concrete trade-off when using a tool such as search zones. “On the one hand, we respond to the intelligence we have, and on the other hand, we strive to have measures to cause the least possible inconvenience to the general public. In the current situation, we have not found a basis for extending the visitation zones,” he says in the press release.
     One visitation zone includes Christiania and parts of Amager. The second includes an area in Nørrebro and in Copenhagen’s Northwest Quarter. The zones have been repeatedly extended since August. The visitation zones were introduced due to an ongoing gang conflict between the Hells Angels and the banned Loyal To Familia gang (LTF). When the police have a search zone, they do not need due cause before searching citizens or vehicles in the zone. However, in recent weeks, the Copenhagen Police have registered fewer incidents in the search zones, and therefore do not consider there is a need to extend the zones. /ritzau/