New system to give Korean police real-time location data on stalking offenders

South Korea’s National Police Agency and Ministry of Justice announced Wednesday that they have begun work on a system that will allow police to monitor in real time the locations of stalkers fitted with electronic ankle monitors. Since the introduction of electronic monitoring for stalking offenders in January 2024, the Justice Ministry has been responsible for fitting and monitoring the GPS-enabled devices, managing and enforcing restraining orders, and relaying alerts to police. The police, meanwhile, have handled on-the-ground responses to incidents and victim protection. However, because the Justice Ministry’s tracking system and the police’s emergency response system have operated independently of one another, the Justice Ministry’s monitoring center has had to send the locations of offenders and victims to police via text message when notifying them of violations, such as breaches of no-contact orders or tampering with monitoring devices. This has made it difficult for officers responding to the incidents to track the locations of offenders and victims in real time. To address the issue, the two agencies agreed to establish a real-time information-sharing system. They plan to invest around 4.2 billion won (US$3 million) to build an integrated platform by December. Once the systems are linked, alerts generated by the Justice Ministry’s monitoring center will be automatically routed through the police’s emergency response dispatch system, enabling faster response times by officers in the field. Responding officers will also be able to track offenders’ movements in real time. “The new system is expected to significantly strengthen victim protection by allowing officers in the field to view offenders’ movements at a glance while responding to incidents,” said Yoo Jae-seong, the acting commissioner general of police. Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho said that because stalking offenses require proactive victim protection and rapid on-site responses above all else, the ministry will continue to strengthen its close cooperation with police.