The Danish Prosecution Service (Danish: ) is the Danish public entity who is responsible for the prosecution of

criminal charge A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority (usually a public prosecutor or the police) asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can t ...

s. It consists of the Director of Public Prosecutions (''Rigsadvokaten''), the regional

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

s (''Statsadvokaterne'') and on the lowest level the chief

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

s (''Politimestrene'').

Purpose

It is the duty of the Prosecution Service to attend to cases as quickly as possible. The Prosecution Service must make sure that offenders are called to account in accordance with the law, but must also ensure that innocent persons are not prosecuted.

Structure

Director of Public Prosecutions

The Director of Public Prosecutions is head of the Prosecution Service, and he conducts prosecutions in

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

cases before the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Regional Public Prosecutors

Regional public prosecutors attend to criminal cases before the High Courts and superintend the chief constables. It is also regional public prosecutors who deal with complaints against the police and cases concerning compensation for decisions made by chief constables in criminal prosecutions. The Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic

Crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

attends to cases involving serious

financial Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

crime, on a national basis. The Special International Crimes Office attends to crimes committed by foreigners outside

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Police Districts

Chief constables are prosecutors in the district courts in their respective

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

s. As they are, at the same time, head of the police district, they are also responsible for police investigations of breaches of the law in the district. The local prosecution service is, in practice, attended to by the attorneys and police

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

s of the police district.

References

{{Reflist Law enforcement agencies of Denmark