Ministry of Justice Launches Rapid Investigation Team to Prevent Recidivism from Electronic Ankle Bracelet Tampering

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Ministry of Justice announced on the 13th that it has established a 'Rapid Investigation Team' to quickly respond to violations of compliance, such as tampering with electronic monitoring anklets by electronic supervision subjects.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the newly established investigation team will monitor compliance violations by subjects 24 hours a day and, in the event of a violation, will immediately dispatch personnel to the scene, conduct investigations, and arrest offenders on the spot to prevent crimes in advance.

The investigation team consists of a total of 78 members. Individuals with an average of over 9 years of experience in probation work have joined. The 13 team leaders were selected through open recruitment and appointments to enhance expertise.

The investigation teams have been installed at 13 probation offices, including Seoul and Busan.

With the establishment of the investigation team, the Ministry of Justice expects that, as the supervisory duties and investigative duties of electronic supervision officers are separated, on-site dispatch will be possible for all compliance violations. Over the past five years, the immediate on-site dispatch rate was only 18.4%.

The creation of the investigation team is also expected to prevent recidivism in recent cases of electronic anklet tampering. Recently, Kang Yoon-sung, who was under electronic supervision, caused national outrage by killing two women in the Songpa-gu area before and after tampering with his electronic anklet.

Cases of tampering with electronic anklets are gradually increasing.

In the first year of the electronic anklet system in 2008, only 151 people wore electronic anklets, but as of July this year, the number has increased more than 30 times to 4,847. The number of tampering cases was only one in 2009 but rose to 23 in 2019. Up to August this year, there have been 13 tampering cases recorded.

The Ministry of Justice stated, "As personnel are supplemented in the future, we will expand the Rapid Investigation Team nationwide to restore public trust in the electronic supervision system."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.