Danish police station spends 56,000 kroner on hotdogs
Danish police departments have spent surprisingly large portions of their budget on sausages and bread, according to a newspaper report in the Nordic country.
The hotdog with rødpølse (“red sausage”), remoulade relish, pickled cucumber and dried fried onions is a Danish classic and arguably the Scandinavian country’s signature street food.
Although the number of pølsevogne (sausage wagons) in Denmark is declining, they appear to be as popular as ever among the country’s law enforcement.
Records requests by newspaper Jyllands-Posten have revealed some eye-popping expenses for ‘opening parties’ for new local police stations or nærpolitistationer.
The newspaper found that the Central and West Zealand Police forked over more than 88,000 kroner for a community party to celebrate the opening of a station in Asnæs — a town with a population of 4,158 in 2022, according to Statistics Denmark.
From that impressive budget, 56,187 went to the rental of a hotdog van.
The amount covered around 2,000 sausages and hotdogs at 28 kroner a pop, Jørgen Bergen Skov, director of Central and West Zealand police, told Jyllands-Posten in a written comment.
The purpose of the event was to make the local community aware of the new police presence in Asnæs, he said.
Meanwhile, North Jutland police spent a combined 64,966 kroner on opening parties in Aars and Brønderslev. This included 12,515 kroner spent on “sweets and lollipops” for both events and 23,686 kroner on a hotdog truck for the Brønderslev event.
“I am surprised that so much money can be spent on the opening of a local police station when you know how tight the economy is in police districts, where every krone must be accounted for,” Heino Kegel, chairman of the Politiforbundet police union, told Jyllands-Posten with regard to Asnæs’s high tab.
The reported amount seems to be an outlier compared to other police districts, he also said.
A total of 20 new local police stations have been opened across Denmark, with opening events costing over 10,000 in several cases, the newspaper writes. The new stations were provided for in a 2020 political agreement.
READ ALSO: Are these the most ‘Danish’ things you have ever seen?
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The hotdog with rødpølse (“red sausage”), remoulade relish, pickled cucumber and dried fried onions is a Danish classic and arguably the Scandinavian country’s signature street food.
Although the number of pølsevogne (sausage wagons) in Denmark is declining, they appear to be as popular as ever among the country’s law enforcement.
Records requests by newspaper Jyllands-Posten have revealed some eye-popping expenses for ‘opening parties’ for new local police stations or nærpolitistationer.
The newspaper found that the Central and West Zealand Police forked over more than 88,000 kroner for a community party to celebrate the opening of a station in Asnæs — a town with a population of 4,158 in 2022, according to Statistics Denmark.
From that impressive budget, 56,187 went to the rental of a hotdog van.
The amount covered around 2,000 sausages and hotdogs at 28 kroner a pop, Jørgen Bergen Skov, director of Central and West Zealand police, told Jyllands-Posten in a written comment.
The purpose of the event was to make the local community aware of the new police presence in Asnæs, he said.
Meanwhile, North Jutland police spent a combined 64,966 kroner on opening parties in Aars and Brønderslev. This included 12,515 kroner spent on “sweets and lollipops” for both events and 23,686 kroner on a hotdog truck for the Brønderslev event.
“I am surprised that so much money can be spent on the opening of a local police station when you know how tight the economy is in police districts, where every krone must be accounted for,” Heino Kegel, chairman of the Politiforbundet police union, told Jyllands-Posten with regard to Asnæs’s high tab.
The reported amount seems to be an outlier compared to other police districts, he also said.
A total of 20 new local police stations have been opened across Denmark, with opening events costing over 10,000 in several cases, the newspaper writes. The new stations were provided for in a 2020 political agreement.
READ ALSO: Are these the most ‘Danish’ things you have ever seen?
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