Crime fiction is pretty popular. Countless of novels, movies, and TV-series are each year mass produced for us to spend endless hours in disturbing, scary and thrilling stories where we follow the detective bringing truth and justice to otherwise criminals who might have gotten away with theire hideous deeds. Even the police work has captured the imagination of the public and gained a strong audience that loves to watch the police work in TV-shows that follows cops on their daily duties to protect the civilians from uncivilized deeds. Thus it would only make sense that a museum would have good chances of creating some exciting stories from the real life crime cases and show them in the safe rooms of the museum world. At least that was my hope when I visited the Police Museum in Copenhagen. Located on the outskirts of Nørrebro, but quite close to Sortedams Søerne, the Police museum stands tall in a solid block of a building, formerly used as an actual police station. It doesn’t look like much, and I also expected the museum visit to be quite a short one. However, I have had previous experiences with museums that might look small on the outside, but the material they have points a waypath far more time consuming that the expectation had allowed. In other words, the topic of police work was far more interesting than I originally expected.
My initial impression, though, was not neccesarily amazement. The museum lacks a separate cloak room and that forces you to keep your jacket and bag in open place where anyone can basically just take your stuff. You could keep your jacket with you but like any indoor area you will probably feel it annoying due to the heat. I understand the museum is small and have a small budget, but a separate cloak room is something any modern museum should have. Leaving anything unattended behind is just far too dangerous, even in a museum about the Danish Police which is amusingly paradoxical.
Getting past that nuisance, the exhibitions themselves were actually quite interesting. The groundfloor covers the base history of the Police with show of clothes, artefacts, police tools, and a small reconstruction of the old police office in the building. What stroke my eyes was the curious red uniform the Police used to have which is in contrast to the modern dark blue they use. It looked far more like post office uniforms than police uniforms, but it might just show the way I am used to it. Further exploration also led to areas with motorbikes and the specific instrments the police carried around in order to do their duties. It is quite interesting to see how things have changed and also know that the Police have often been underfunded and been behind in the race of technology. For instance, it took some time before they got automobiles even when private citizens roamed around in the streets in them. Instead, the Police had to either walk or take the tram in which they had to politely wait and stand in a cue just like everybody else.
The groundfloor also houses the old detention area where you can get a feeling of how tight the quarters are. I must admit, even though I am not really claustrophobia, I could feel the tightness quite close to my soul and definitely felt a bit uncomfortable being in those tiny rooms. Fortunately, they also made some of the small rooms into exhibitions about prison escape and here was a fascinating video about one of the most organized prison escapes in Danish History. It was even filmed because the people behind it had informed a local TV-station about it shortly before it happened getting the escape on tape when the prisoner ran out of the prison. Quite stunning to see!
In general the museum uses a few videos, but even if those touchscreen videos are few they are pretty nice a fits the exhibitions pretty well. I especially liked a short older video of a man trying to onto an old motorbike, but he was so drunk that he could barely get on it. Fortunately, a police officer noted it and put him to the side, probably giving him a nice fine.
Whereas the bottom floor shows the general history of the Police, the topfloor presented specific cases to be read. In the montres are shown evidence for these cases and honestly, I consider this floor the real meat of interest for visitors. This is where you get concrete robberies and murder cases as opposed to the bottom floor where you got distant history. The robberies and swindler cases are interesting to read, but the unsolved cases and especially the diabolic cases of the “murder-room” are certainly elements that will disturb and possibly scare a visitor. But at the same time that is also what makes such cases fascinating. For as I mentioned in my intro above, crazy crimes are both disturbing, repulsive and yet also fascinating.
Overall, the Police Museum is an interesting visit that touches on the life and history of the Danish police force. The topic is engaging and exciting, but the lack of translations make it difficult for foreigners understanding very much of the history and even less of the specific cases, cases that are the best of what the museum can offer. This makes it difficult to recommend as understanding the context and the stories are a pretty central element of why it is worth visiting the museum. It is a museum with such a huge potential but a lack of funds or efforts just holds back the museum’s potential. A better cloakroom, more space, and English translations of the info would indeed make this museum a very intriguing experience. However, as the museum stands right now, it feels outdated and lacking what modern museums have. Unless you do know the Danish language or is a huge fan of Police History there are probably other museums that are more worth using your time and 60 dkk on.
Visit if…you know the Danish language and is up for some interesting and also very disturbing stories from the Danish police force as the museum’s topic is excellent and exciting.
Avoid if…you can’t read Danish and is not that much a fan of hearing about criminal endeavours as the museum is primarily aimed at a Danish audience and people interested in real life crime stories.
Accessibility: 2/5
Interaction: 3/5
Learning: 3/5
Price: 4/5
Total: