This report concerns the police’s discontinuation of cases concerning financial crime.
The purpose of the study is to assess whether the police’s practice for handling a number of matters concerning cases of financial crime is satisfactory. Rigsrevisionen answers the following questions in the report:
- Do the police refrain from registering cases even though there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a criminal offence has been committed?
- Do the police discontinue cases with investigative potential without investigating them?
- Do the police discontinue cases that they are not authorised to discontinue?
Rigsrevisionen finds the police’s practice for discontinuing cases concerning financial crime highly unsatisfactory. Several police districts have established internal instructions for discontinuing cases involving significantly larger losses than the centrally determined monetary threshold. Particularly since 2022, the police have discontinued many cases above the threshold without investigating them. In addition, police employees in all districts have, contrary to the rules, discontinued cases that may only be discontinued by the prosecution service. The consequence of the described practice may be that fewer cases concerning financial crime are solved.
Rigsrevisionen initiated the study in March 2025 at the request of the Danish Public Accounts Committee.