Two Copenhagen police officers are to appear in court for driving recklessly and ending up in a traffic accident last year.
Cops getting a little reckless in the line of duty comes as no surprise, but there is more to this police story than initially meets the eye: the two cops were chasing each other.
Both officers were driving in unmarked cars and when one began chasing the other for speeding. Meanwhile, the other thought the car chasing him was harassing him. The drama ended in a fender bender.
The incident, which occurred on January 17, took place on the stretch of road between Gladsaxe and Borups Allé.
The policemen have each been accused of ‘seriously endangering traffic safety’ by exceeding the speed limit, running red lights and driving on a cycleway in an unmarked car without police lights or sirens.
According to the indictment, they also drove on the central reservation and on the hard shoulder and overtook other cars on the inside. The wild driving resulted in a cyclist having to brake so hard that the person fell off his bicycle. A number of other cars were forced to evade the marauding policemen as well.
The chase came to an end when of the officers rammed the other’s car in order to stop him, but that resulted in a third car being hit, though no injuries were reported.
Torben Koch, the lawyer of one of the officers, said that his client was on duty in a vehicie without police lights or sirens and sped through a speed control, where the other officer saw him and began the chase.
“He takes off after him thinking that he is a criminal and the man in the front car thinks that the man chasing him out of harassment. They are both in civilian clothes, driving unmarked cars, and neither can see it is a fellow officer,” Koch told the tabloid Ekstra Bladet.
At first, a public prosecutor found there was no reason to charge the two policemen, but that decision was overruled.
“It is deeply reprehensible, because my client’s superiors confirmed he had been on duty in an unmarked car,” Koch said. “I believe that the original decision was the right decision.”
The trial is set to begin on September 25.
