The Korean National Police Agency reported a 43% plunge in voice phishing crimes from a year earlier as it disclosed key achievements marking the first anniversary of the Lee Jae-myung government.
According to the National Police Agency on Wednesday, since the launch of the "people's sovereignty government," police reduced staffing in areas with declining security demand, such as riot police units, and reassigned 1,907 officers to field departments handling investigations of crimes affecting daily life and crime prevention, strengthening the foundation for on-site response to protect public safety.
The police said that as a result of their strict response to crimes affecting daily life and the economy over the past year, voice phishing crimes from January to April this year plunged 43% from the same period a year earlier. Over the same period, crime damages fell 48%.
The police, recognizing voice phishing crime as a "national emergency situation," launched an Integrated Response Team Against Telecommunications Financial Fraud in October last year and have been waging an all-out effort. By converting voice phishing response consultations to a 24-hours, 365-days system, they also achieved an increase in the response rate for reporting calls from a previous 69.54% to 98.2%.
The police said that as a result of establishing a dedicated investigation system for illegal private lending, centered on direct investigation departments at city and provincial agencies, the number of arrests from last November to this April rose 37.5% and the number of people arrested rose 19% compared with the same period. They also made numerous arrests for new and modified illegal activities, such as small loans disguised as advance sales of gift certificates.
In addition, to eradicate transnational crime that crosses borders, the police formed and are operating a government-wide special transnational crime response task force (TF) for the first time among administrations. They have currently prepared measures including operating a Cambodia Korea Response Team, launching an international cooperation council and conducting international cooperation operations, and repatriation by chartered flights.
As a result, arrests of suspects in Southeast Asia from January to April this year rose 3.1-fold from 128 to 391. Over the same period, repatriations of fugitives jumped 2.4-fold from 131 to 316.
As a result of expanding the dedicated investigation system for drug crimes, the number of online drug offenders arrested this year rose 25% from a year earlier, from 4,274 to 5,341. The police plan to swiftly overhaul related systems so that the undercover investigation system for drug crimes takes root early, while expanding and advancing the international cooperation system for transnational crimes such as the smuggling of overseas narcotics, based on achievements confirmed in scam crimes and other cases.
The police also said that as a result of forming a "False Information Crackdown Task Force (TF)" to respond to malicious false information such as fake news, they referred 152 people for prosecution and deleted or blocked 918 pieces of false information by the end of April. In addition, centered on a dedicated investigation team for secondary harm, they responded strictly to the spread of false information defaming disaster victims and bereaved families, referring 64 people for prosecution (with two arrested) and requesting the deletion or blocking of 2,487 secondary-harm postings.
Since establishing comprehensive measures against relationship-based crimes in August last year, the police have maintained a stance of strict response to perpetrators, including isolating offenders and strengthening the use of electronic ankle monitors. Internally, they have built an organizational culture based on the constitution and human rights, including conducting constitutional education for security police nationwide.
Yoo Jae-sung, acting commissioner of the National Police Agency, said, "The past year has been a time of change and a leap forward in which we innovated the security system and worked on our feet for public safety." He added, "Placing all the goals of police activities on saving people's lives and protecting precious lives and property, we will bring about real change in people's lives with even more concrete achievements by the end of this year."
