The government is pushing to increase the number of police and probation officers in charge of overseeing sex offenders prone to recidivism by 1,250 in the wake of a series of violent sex crimes in recent weeks, the home affairs ministry said Thursday.
The move is part of the government's all-out efforts against sex offenses and other types of violent crimes after a string of brutal cases victimizing women and children or targeting the public at random shocked the nation.
Of the 1,000 police officers set to be mobilized, some 700 will oversee former convicts who are suspected of having repeated violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and arson, according to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.
Currently, some 20,000 former convicts with history of committing sex offenses, along with some 16,900 others convicted for other types of violent crimes, are on the government watch list.
The increase in manpower, in particular, will allow police to monitor and contact 1,441 ex-convicts on the government's "special" watch list for repeated sex crimes once a week, according to the ministry.
Currently, no personnel exist solely in charge of such people, and officers used to follow their whereabouts about once a month.
The rest 300 officers will be deployed to the country's emergency 112 call centers, an increase of some 15 percent from the current number, the ministry added.
If finalized, the envisioned plan marks the first time in five years, under the current Lee government, that the country will have increased its number of police officers. South Korea has a total of 101,349 police officers for a ratio of one officer per every 501 citizens, government data showed.
Under the plan, the country will also recruit 250 additional probation officers to take responsibility for tracing convicts wearing electronic anklets, more than doubling the current number of officers dealing with the job, the ministry said.
The move is part of efforts to raise the effectiveness of the monitoring program, which was introduced in 2008, after a sex criminal wearing the device was arrested last month for allegedly stabbing a woman to death after a failed attempt to rape her in Seoul.
The increase in the manpower will enable authorities to have face-to-face talks with some 1,000 criminals wearing the anklet once a week, according to the ministry.
"We finalized the plan and sent it to the finance ministry to secure budget needed," the home affairs ministry official said.
Around 20 billion won ($17.6 million) is expected to be required for the plan, according to the finance ministry. (Yonhap)