Traffic officer keeps catching speeders after rebuilding his life

DR has met Lars Smedegaard, a traffic controller with Fyn Police who has been called a racist and a Nazi, shoved and spat at while carrying out automatic traffic control. Today marks 10 years since Denmark’s automatic traffic control system was introduced.

Smedegaard says such incidents are rare. Most people he meets are friendly, he says, as his cocker spaniel Joe jumps around beside him.

Before joining the police, Smedegaard worked in the wine trade and ran a wine shop in Odense. He says he worked too much until his wife died.

“I realised that I had cancelled plans far too many times. I had simply spent too much energy on my work, so I sold everything,” he says. “I cannot change what happened, but I can live differently. I promised myself that, and I am doing it.”

He also promised himself that he would seek a job he had never done before. It is now two and a half years since he began working as an automatic traffic control officer with Fyn Police.

Smedegaard says he enjoys the freedom of the job and has “friendly bosses”. He also says drivers are responsible for their own speed.

On the day of DR’s visit, he has parked the traffic control van at Gammelsø near the harbour in Odense, where the speed limit is 50 kilometres per hour. Most drivers pass within the limit, but three are caught during the first few hours of the shift.

“It is not me pressing the accelerator,” Smedegaard says.

He recalls catching a young man driving at 120 kilometres per hour at the same location around six months earlier. The road had a 50 kilometre per hour limit.

“That is not good. It falls under the reckless driving package, so his car was probably confiscated. He loses his driving licence and is probably also facing an unconditional prison sentence,” Smedegaard says.

People regularly stop by the van to ask about the controls. One of them is Flemming Glenn from Næsby, who wants to know whether the speed limit on the road really is 50.

Glenn was caught by the camera there the previous week while driving his son to work. He had thought the limit was 60 because he had not noticed the town sign farther down the road.

The offence cost him 1,200 kroner.

“That is fine. I was still driving too fast,” Glenn says. He also asks about Smedegaard’s job, saying he might like to do something similar one day.

“I can only recommend it,” Smedegaard replies. He says he has not regretted leaving the wine trade for road safety work.