NCJ Number
116033
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 26 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1989) Pages: 14-15
Date Published
1989
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article surveys the development history and benefits of Denmark's Provida System, a traffic monitoring system consisting of a computer, a special light-sensitive camera, a video recorder, and a display screen.
Abstract
A description of the system's components emphasizes that now recordings can be optimally reproduced in pictures and sound exactly like the moment in which the offense was committed. First used experimentally in one patrol car in 1979, Provida was expanded to a general patrolling function after its successful use in 1982 in connection with a foreign dignitary's visit to Denmark. Highlights of the system's benefits focus on its role in proving traffic offense cases that previously were based on circumstantial evidence and testimony of witnesses. Also described is the system's usefulness in reconstructing traffic and other offenses, surveillance, and special actions in the areas of theft, violence, smuggling, and illegal street trading in Copenhagen's center.