Police Deploy Undercover Patrol Cars to Prevent Drivers from Slowing Only in Front of Cameras

Seoul police are deploying vehicles equipped with speed enforcement cameras to prevent drivers from slowing down only in front of fixed cameras as a loophole.

Police are cracking down on reckless driving in the Sinbu-dong area of Dongnam-gu, Cheonan. Yonhap News

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on May 19 that, from May 15 until the end of this month, it will intensively operate these undercover patrol cars on expressways such as Olympic-daero and Gangbyeonbuk-ro.

The undercover patrol cars were introduced to reduce cases where drivers slow down only in front of fixed enforcement cameras and then speed up again. From 2022 to 2024, 19 out of 25 fatalities (76.0%) from traffic accidents on Seoul's expressways occurred during nighttime hours, which are particularly vulnerable to speeding.

The undercover patrol cars are operated with funding from the Seoul Metropolitan Autonomous Police Committee. The equipment installed in these vehicles automatically detects vehicle speed, speeding violations, license plate numbers, and real-time vehicle locations using radar, and also records driving situations such as reckless driving and illegal lane changes through manual video recording.

The police plan to conduct a pilot operation of the undercover patrol cars until the end of this month, focusing on guidance and public awareness activities, and will begin full-scale enforcement against high-risk behaviors such as speeding and reckless driving starting next month.

A police official stated, "With vehicle-mounted enforcement equipment, we can conduct enforcement anytime and anywhere without stopping vehicles," adding, "We expect that increased awareness due to enforcement will lead to an overall improvement in traffic safety consciousness among citizens."

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