There were well over 1,500 people living in Rødbyhavn in 2022. And well over 1,500 more have come in connection with the Fehmarn project. Most of them are men from Poland or elsewhere in Eastern Europe who are in Rødbyhavn without their family. It has left a clear mark on the shelves in the local shops, where there is significantly more frequent replacement of the bottles on the vodka shelves, just as the “new” Rødbyhavn residents also fill up well at the local dispensing outlets.
Surprisingly little criminal activity
One could imagine that would attract more shady “businessmen” in the form of hashish and drug dealers, brothels and alternative moneylenders. But that is not the case, according to the local police in Nakskov, who have the daily police supervision of Rødbyhavn and thus the Fehmarn project. And it has actually come as a bit of a surprise, says Police Commissioner Lars Slente, who is head of the local police in Nakskov:
– I had expected that it could pose greater challenges than it has. We have also asked ourselves these questions, and that is why we have started a collaboration with FLC Village, says Lars Slente.
Monthly meetings with FLC Village
The cooperation between the local police and FLC means that the two parties hold monthly meetings to find out if there is anything the police should be interested in. The formalized collaboration has now been in place for well over a year, and on that occasion the police commissioner has compiled the statistics:
Just under 70 cases in one year
– We have just under 70 cases in our record system that can be attributed to FLC-Village, in the period November 2022 to November 2023. Most of them have something to do with alcohol, says Lars Slente.
“Something with alcohol” could be, for example, a man lying and sleeping in a place where he shouldn’t be. It can also cover up the fact that someone got into a car with too much alcohol in their body.
Under ten drug cases
According to the police commissioner, there have been just under ten police cases involving violations of the drug legislation and a total of four cases of violence, where the three however belong to what is described in police terms as “disorder”.
Weekly patrols
In addition to the monthly meetings and the regular police operations, the local police also patrols “behind the fence” at the Fehmarn project – including also around FLC-Village – about once a week, says Police Commissioner Lars Slente. And from there it is reported that “everything is calm”.
