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[SITUATION] · [QUIET] · [CRIME]

2 clusters · 4 sources · 3 days · First seen 16 days ago · Last updated 13 days ago

Danish police fingerprint registry error

Overview

A technical error in the Danish police fingerprint register, known as AFIS, has potentially allowed criminals to evade justice. The flaw, reportedly linked to a system migration, resulted in missing fingerprint coding for thousands of criminal cases over a long period.

While the issue was discovered by an investigator from the National Unit for Special Crime (NSK) in 2023, the National Police (Rigspolitiet) did not report the flaw to the Independent Oversight of Evidence until 2025. This delay has drawn sharp criticism from Danish Justice Minister Nicolai Wammen.

An NSK investigation into 10 percent of the affected cases identified matches between individuals and 77 pieces of evidence across 35 serious criminal cases. The National Police are currently reviewing the status of these cases to determine the full extent of the impact, noting that fingerprints alone cannot serve as the sole evidence in a trial.

Entities

National enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet · Rigspolitiet · AFIS · Det Uafhængige Tilsyn med Bevismidler · Nicolai Wammen

Timeline

13 days ago

[CRIME] 2 sources
Danish police fingerprint error may have allowed criminals to escape justice
A systemic error in Denmark's fingerprint registry between 2014 and 2023 may have allowed criminals to go free after failing to link crime scene evidence to suspects in thousands of cases.
16 days ago

[CRIME] 2 sources
Danish police fingerprint register error may have freed criminals
A major error in the Danish police fingerprint register (AFIS) may have allowed criminals to escape detection in thousands of cases following a system migration error.

Sources

ing.dk · presse-fotos.dk · pro.ing.dk · version2.dk