By Kim Rahn
The government will hire an additional 1,250 policemen and probation officers to cope with the increasing number of felonies being committed.
Officials at the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said Thursday that they submitted a plan to hire an additional 1,000 policemen and 250 probation officers to the finance ministry in order to obtain a larger budget.
The number is more than 1,223 for the total number of public servants the government plans to employ next year for other ministries or agencies. The ministry expects that about 20 billion won in additional funds will be needed.
“Police annually hire new officers to fill vacancies created by retiring officers and this year about 2,600 will be selected. In addition to the regular recruitment, we’ll select 1,000 more. We’ll do so as soon as possible, presumably by next year, announcing the recruitment notice within this year if possible,” a ministry official said.
As of 2011, the number of police officers was 101,239, according to the National Police Agency.
Of the 1,000 newly recruited, 700 will be assigned to monitoring former criminals convicted of murder, arson, burglary, theft, rape, sexual assault and drug use and are likely to commit more crimes. So far, ordinary police officers have monitored them without deploying a special team to the task.
Police used to monitor 1,441 former sex offenders once a month, but with the new recruitment, they will be able to monitor them weekly.
Another 300 policemen to be selected will be dispatched to work at the 112 Crime Report Center. Citizens have complained that the hotline was busy when they called because there were not enough employees at the center. It currently has 2,043 workers.
Presently, 102 officers monitor about 1,000 former sex offenders who wear electronic anklets. About 250 new probation officers will be assigned to this task.