Police to dispatch more to fight domestic crime

The police said it plans to dispatch its officers specializing in domestic crime to local precincts nationwide, as well as increasing the manpower to manage sex crime offenders.

The National Police Agency (NPA) said yesterday the plan was intended to prevent domestic violence and crimes against minors. The NPA is currently discussing with related government agencies how to carry out the plan.

For domestic violence, the NPA said, one liaison police officer will be dispatched to each police precinct nationwide to improve the police’s response ability and skill in handling these cases.

The officer will manage the domestic violence cases reported to local police stations under its jurisdiction, including the investigation at the scene of the crime, victims and offenders as well as eviction and segregation of offenders.

According to the NPA, about 60 percent of domestic violence offenders were charged with spousal abuse.

In Gangwon, for instance, a total of 9,345 offenders were charged with abusing family members, including husbands, wives, children and relatives living in the house last year, up from 7,272 in 2011. It added that 33 percent, or 3,095, of the charged offenders were repeat offenders.

The police will dispatch a total of 249 domestic violence liaison police officers to 249 police precincts nationwide, saying 137 of them will be dispatched by the end of the year, and the remaining 112 will be assigned later.

The police will also propose a provision that could strengthen its power to investigate domestic violence.

Along with the plan targeting domestic violence, the NPA said it will increase the manpower managing sex offenders who are on the government’s sex offender registry (www.sexoffender.go.kr).

There are currently a total of 346 police officers monitoring sex offenders, and the police wants to increase the number to 1,094 by the end of 2017.

By Chung Kang-hyun, Kwon Sang-soo [sakwon80@joongang.co.kr]