Despite a rash of recent reports about stabbings and grisly murders, a new City Council survey indicated that 90 percent of Copenhagen residents feel safe at night in the city.
The survey, carried out by Userneeds, is based on the responses of 601 men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 who live in Copenhagen and have been out to a nightclub or bar at least twice in the past year. The survey has been undertaken annually since 2010 and is representative in terms of age, sex and ethnicity.
“We are very happy that people feel safe in Copenhagen, but we can’t let this news cause us to relax. We must continue to focus on safety in the city,” Lea Bryld, a spokesperson for the city’s safety commission, Center for Sikker By, told Politiken newspaper.
Bryld said that even though people feel safe, every fourth person asked indicated that safety was the most important challenge in Copenhagen at the moment, second only to the creation of jobs and growth. The figure marks a 10 percent rise compared with last year.
The sentiment follows in the wake of a series of violent occurrences, including the recent stabbing murder of law student, Jonas Thomsen Sekyere, on November 18 at a popular bar in the Kødbyen district.
“The survey began before the murder of Jonas Thomsen Sekyere and even though we can see that safety is high, this type of tragedy can lead to people feeling unsafe,” Bryld told Politiken. “We see the increase as an expression that people want us to continue our focus on safety.”
The Center for Sikker By said one of the ways it was addressing those concerns was by launching an informational campaign against carrying knives when going out to clubs and bars.
The survey answers were collected between November 12 and November 25.
