Politihjemmeværnet is a
Danish Home Guard
The Danish Home Guard () (HJV) is the fourth service of the Danish Armed Forces. It was formerly concerned only with the defence of Danish territory, but since 2006, it has also supported the Danish military efforts in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Th ...
unit, which can support the
Danish police
The Police of Denmark (, , ) is the Denmark, Danish National Police force, and the interior part of the Danish security forces (the Danish Defence, Danish military being the exterior) in the Kingdom (The Danish Realm: Denmark (proper), Green ...
in various tasks.
Operation
The Danish police can call upon the assistance from a section of the Danish home guard; the ''police home guard''. The police home guard consists of 47 companies, each led by professional police officers.
The volunteers are mainly used for traffic control at
festival
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
s,
searches for victims and guarding community installations and are never used where there are risks of direct confrontation with civilians (
riot control
Riot control is a form of public order policing used by law enforcement, military, paramilitary or security forces to social control, control, disperse, and arrest people who are involved in a riot, unlawful Demonstration (people), demonstration ...
or planned
arrest
An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...
s). The companies are part of the Army Home Guard.
They are dressed in the branch-common daily battle dress uniforms, green berets and bright yellow wests with the text "POLITI HJEMMEVÆRNET".
The police home guard can have slightly more legal authority than other citizens, when the service they provide calls for it, but are always under the supervision of the civilian police.
References
Military units and formations of Denmark
Law enforcement in Denmark
Reserve forces
External links
Description of the Politihjemmeværnet(in Danish)
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