[Report] Undercover Patrol Cars Now Catch Speeding on Highways... Alarm Sounds and Violations Detected

Pilot Operation of Patrol Car-Mounted Traffic Enforcement Equipment
Real-Time Confirmation of '131 km/h' Speeding Vehicle
Full-Scale Crackdown on Excessive Speeding Starting Next Month

Speed enforcement equipment installed in an unmarked police patrol car. / Photo by Lee Jung-yoon

[Yongin=Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] "'When you hear a 'ddiring-ddiring' sound and a red mark appears on the vehicle shown on the screen, it means speeding has been detected."

At around 2 p.m. on the 12th at Bongdam-Dongtan Expressway, where the speed limit is 100 km/h, a white passenger car sped past an unmarked patrol car like a bullet. The speed enforcement equipment installed in the unmarked patrol car did not miss this. After the alarm sounded, a red square appeared around the vehicle on the operation pad screen showing the front view. Then, the vehicle number of the speeding car and the fact that it was traveling at 131 km/h were also displayed on the screen. The unmarked patrol car equipped with speed enforcement equipment was able to check speeding vehicles in real time while driving on the expressway.

The National Police Agency has been conducting a pilot operation of the 'patrol car-mounted traffic enforcement equipment' that can detect speeding while driving since this month. This equipment, consisting of four components: radar, camera, controller, and operation pad, measures the speed of vehicles ahead and automatically extracts speeding cases. Using radar, it achieves a speed measurement accuracy within about 2% error, and with a high-performance camera, it improves vehicle number recognition accuracy to within about 4% error at a 50m standard. It also includes functions to automatically store and transmit enforcement information by tracking the location in real time. Until now, expressway speeding enforcement mainly relied on fixed unmanned speed cameras. Therefore, so-called 'kangaroo driving,' where drivers only slow down in front of unmanned cameras, was a blind spot.

Accompanying the pilot operation for about 30 minutes on the Gyeongbu Expressway and Bongdam-Dongtan Expressway that day, drivers on the expressway drove without knowing that the unmarked patrol car, which looks like a regular vehicle, was checking for speeding. In this situation, the speed enforcement equipment immediately indicated speeding on the operation pad when it detected a vehicle exceeding the preset speed limit. It was possible to detect speeding vehicles not only in the same lane as the unmarked patrol car but also in other lanes going in the same direction. It is said to be able to detect speeding regardless of day or night and weather conditions.

During the pilot operation period, the police will equip 17 unmarked patrol cars of the highway patrol units of each city and provincial police agency with this equipment. This month, the focus will be on promotion, and from December, enforcement will target 'excessive speeding' exceeding the speed limit by 40 km/h. For speeding below that, a guidance notice will be issued for three months before enforcement. The police plan to additionally equip 10 unmarked patrol cars operating on national roads and other general roads within this year.

A National Police Agency official explained, "The fatality rate for expressway speeding accidents reaches 25%, and the goal is to reduce this through the speed enforcement equipment installed in unmarked patrol cars," adding, "We also plan to develop the system to enforce violations by two-wheeled vehicles."

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