During COVID-19, 'Surge in Livelihood Crimes' in Gangwon-do... Province Announces "Expansion of Special Judicial Police Activities"

473 Cases Detected in the First Half of This Year Surpass Last Year's Total of 381
Activation of Monitoring and Reporting Systems, Strengthening Special Judicial Police Field Investigation Capabilities

Gangwon Provincial Government

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] In the first half of this year, crimes affecting the livelihood of residents in Gangwon Province surged, prompting the provincial government to strengthen monitoring and reporting systems in response.

On the 17th, Gangwon Province announced, "An analysis of the crackdown results on livelihood crimes in the first half of 2022 revealed a total of 473 cases detected, significantly surpassing last year's total of 381 cases within just six months of this year."

According to the province, violations of environmental laws related to air and water quality notably increased from 214 cases last year to 336 cases in the first half of this year.

Public hygiene crimes, such as illegal lodging businesses, also expanded continuously, rising more than tenfold from 3 cases last year to 38 cases this year.

On the other hand, violations of the Juvenile Protection Act decreased from 164 cases last year to 56 cases this year, showing signs of improvement.

The province analyzed that livelihood-related crimes have been rampant, taking advantage of the difficulties in on-site crackdowns due to social distancing measures over the past two years.

Last year, the loosening of crackdowns in livelihood areas such as origin labeling, food hygiene, and public hygiene to protect small business owners was identified as a major cause of the increase in livelihood crimes.

Accordingly, the province plans to expand the activities of special judicial police in cities and counties and enhance on-site investigation capabilities to reduce crime levels to those before COVID-19.

Additionally, through the 'Integrated Livelihood Crime Reporting Center' opened last month, the province plans to activate monitoring and reporting systems.

As a fundamental measure to curb the spread of livelihood crimes, the province has decided to comprehensively review the scope of duties and organizational structure of the special judicial police.

For illegal blind spots beyond monitoring reach, the current five duty areas (public hygiene, food hygiene, youth, environment, origin labeling) will be expanded to include illegal lending businesses and illegal real estate transactions.

Park Dong-ju, Director of the Disaster Safety Office, stated, "An increase in livelihood-related crimes means that the safety of residents' lives is being threatened," and urged, "We ask for the active reporting and tips from residents."

[Source=Gangwon Provincial Government]

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