By Kim Bo-eun
Police have lost track of more than 7,000 people convicted of serious offenses such as murder and rape.
Rep. Yoo Seung-woo of the ruling Saenuri Party said in a report Thursday that the whereabouts of 7,163 former convicts are unknown, because they are not living at their registered addresses, as of June this year.
The total number of former prisoners currently being tracked by the police is 37,005. This means that police are unable to track down one in five ex-convicts.
Police are keeping track of the former convicts according to the calculated possibility of them committing further crimes. The calculations are based on how many times each person has been convicted, how long their prison sentences were, and the time between the first crime they committed and the most recent as well as various personal details.
Police collect information on such former convicts every one to three months but do not have the authority to have direct contact with them if these people refuse.
Lawmaker Yoo said prevention is more important than making arrests, adding that police need to be given legal authority to monitor the ex-convicts more effectively.
“It is often the case that ex-convicts do not have stable jobs due to their criminal records, so there are many cases in which they live in places other than their registered locations,” said a police official. “We plan to strengthen monitoring.”