the German district of Brandenburg, which surrounds but does not include the national capital of Berlin, is trialling the Navit car navigation system for its Police System

In a report requested by the parliament on the Police budget, the Danish ministry of Finance has left out recommendations by its consultants to switch to open source, which would result in savings of a 100 million kroner (about 13 million Euro), Danish newspapers report.

By gradually migrating to a complete open source desktop and web applications, Gendarmerie Nationale, the French national police force with 105,000 employees, has saved millions of euros. The move cuts Microsoft out of the equation, helping the French national police force slash its IT costs by 70 percent.

The Dutch police are going for an open source solution. Today, Red Hat, the leader in open source solutions, announced that the Dutch Police cooperation “voorziening tot samenwerking Politie Nederland” (vtsPN) has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5) and Red Hat Network (RHN) Satellite Server to manage the rollout of the Linux based systems, to make it easier, faster and more scalable.

The French paramilitary police force said Wednesday it is ditching Microsoft for the free Linux operating system, becoming one of the biggest administrations in the world to make the break.

The European Union's competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, delivered an unusually blunt rebuke to Microsoft on Tuesday by recommending that businesses and governments use software based on open standards. She called using open technology a "smart business decision".

Police data systems should be based on open source software, according to a data expert working with law enforcement.

[Swedish] government officials project IT savings amounting to 50 percent within the next five years – approximately the cost of 400 fully-equipped police cars

The French national police force has slashed its IT costs by 70 per cent by cutting Microsoft out of the equation.