Denmark’s national police have discovered a fault in the Central Criminal Register that deleted case records too early. The issuing of children’s certificates and gun permits has been suspended.
Rigspolitiet announced the error in a press release on September 3, as DR reports. National Police Commissioner Lasse Boje described the fault as very serious. He said the force is doing everything it can to restore the deleted decisions.
The Central Criminal Register, known in Danish as Det Centrale Kriminalregister, stores information about criminal offenses. It holds details of charges brought and decisions reached in criminal cases. The data is used to produce criminal record certificates, or straffeattester.
Information in the register is subject to fixed deletion rules under Danish law. Sentences of unconditional imprisonment are normally deleted automatically 10 years after release. Convictions for serious or particularly serious crime are deleted later.
In its own statement, Rigspolitiet says a fault in the automatic deletion process removed information about certain decisions too early. The force’s preliminary assessment is that the faulty deletions are limited to decisions made before 2011. It also states that the register gives a correct picture of decisions for at least a 10-year period from 2021.
According to Rigspolitiet, the problem surfaced in a specific case in June. A conviction that should have appeared in the register had not been recorded there.
Children’s certificates on hold
Rigspolitiet says the error may affect cases in which information from the register is used, including the processing of children’s certificates. These certificates, called børneattester, are required when hiring people to work with children. Police have therefore paused the issuing of both børneattester and gun permits.
The force also assesses that the fault does not mean decisions are missing from private or public criminal record certificates. Rigspolitiet has not stated exactly what the error consists of. A review has been started to establish the cause and scope.
That review is to answer what the fault is, when it arose, how large it is, and what consequences it may have, according to the police statement.
Justice Minister Nicolai Wammen of the Social Democrats has asked Rigspolitiet to determine quickly whether the deleted information can be recreated. He said it is essential that children’s certificates are accurate when people are hired to work with children.
Wammen has also asked Rigspolitiet to produce a written account of the case. According to the minister, that report should give a full overview of the scope, cause and consequences of the error.
Rigspolitiet says it is still working to establish how many decisions were affected. The force has not given a timeframe for when the issuing of certificates and permits will resume.
