(June 29, 2010) Under a new rule issued by the Crown Prosecutor of Denmark, Jørgen Steen Sørensen, an existing ban on possession of knives in public has been relaxed. Employees who need knives for their work will be permitted to carry their implements in some situations. Trade workers may carry their knives, “if from an overall estimation of the circumstances it can be viewed as reasonable” for those knives to be carried. (Ruling Approves Knives for Trades Workers, COPENHAGEN POST (June 28, 2010), http://www.cphpost.dk/news/crime/49327-ruling-approves-knives-for-tra
des-workers.html.)
In addition to the new exception for workers, other practical exceptions to the no-knives rule were put into place, including permission for newly purchased knives to be carried in shopping bags from the stores that sell them. The old rules had no exceptions and gave police officers the discretion to determine whether someone was violating the law. Those who were in breach of the rules were subject to seven days in jail or a fine of 3,000 kroner (about US$497) for a first offense. According to Sørensen, the new rule will allow prosecutors to apply common sense. (Id.)