Police database error affected 32,366 fingerprint records

A flaw in Denmark’s police fingerprint system may have left 32,366 crime-scene prints without the coding needed to connect them to possible offenders.

The prints came from before 2024, when the current fingerprint register entered use. The lack of coding meant investigators could not search for possible links between prints collected at crime scenes and people in police records, according to a briefing from the National Police to the Justice Ministry.

The National Special Crime Unit reviewed prints connected to cases affected by the missing coding. It found matches between individuals and 77 prints in 35 criminal cases. The cases included homicide, attempted homicide, terrorism, robbery, drug sales and smuggling, illegal possession of firearms, issuing counterfeit money, currency counterfeiting, and burglary.

The National Police and Justice Minister Nicolai Wammen said the review did not provide grounds to reopen the investigations. Wammen nevertheless called the problem serious and unacceptable. "It is of course deeply serious and in no way acceptable that errors in the police fingerprint system may have affected the clearing up of specific criminal cases," he said.

A National Special Crime Unit investigator discovered the error in 2023, but the National Police did not inform the Independent Oversight Board for Evidence until 2025. Wammen called the delay highly critical and ordered the National Police to ensure progress on new workflows and procedures.

The National Police and the special crime unit are acquiring a new fingerprint system, which the minister said is planned to enter service later this year.

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It is of course deeply serious and in no way acceptable that errors in the police fingerprint system may have affected the clearing up of specific criminal cases.