Copenhagen Police senior inspector Jørgen Bergen Skov said in an interview with newspaper Berlingske that police in the capital would like to have the option of using the technology.

Skov spoke to the newspaper on the topic of surveillance in light of the government’s plans to pass legislation which will broaden the extent to which police can use CCTV cameras to monitor citizens.

The government is to propose “significantly” more police surveillance in the form of 300 new security cameras, which law enforcement will be able to install at its own discretion.

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The chief police inspector said that, although he had asked the government to allow more police surveillance, he would like to go further and implement facial recognition.

“How it would work would initially be a political discussion, but nobody can be in doubt that it would be a huge advantage for investigations,” he said to Berlingske.

When police collect large amounts of video data, faces and other shapes like bags, clothing and logos can be identified in crowds, a potentially relevant factor in cases such as terror investigations, Skov explained.

“If we are looking for someone who has committed terror and that person is walking around town, we currently have to look at a large amount of video footage manually and look for the person, who may have been filmed at the scene of the crime. That needs many, many people to look at the video,” he said in the interview.

“If software could help us to see where we should look, that would be a huge advantage for us,” he said.

Skov declined to comment on whether he had asked for facial recognition technology in the new cameras provided for by the government’s security proposals.

But he noted that the set of measures did not specify purchase of technology for facial recognition.

Critics of the government’s decision to allow more police surveillance have expressed concern about individual privacy.

“I’m not interested in whether someone is picking their nose in a shop. We are looking for people who have committed crimes,” Skov said to Berlingske.

“I don’t want to neglect anyone’s feelings. I think it’s important that we have this discussion. That’s also why I agreed to this interview: first and foremost, I want to say that (surveillance) is an important resource for the police… we need it to solve serious crimes,” he said.

Most of the government security measures announced earlier this month must be passed by parliament in a series of bills, Berlingske writes. So far, 1 of 16 elements of the overall package have been formally proposed.