Police develop app to prevent sex crimes on subway

Police announced Wednesday they have developed a crime prevention app to tackle sexual harassment on the subway through massive data collected via major telecom company KT.

The Korean National Police Agency said it had come up with a digital prevention system for sexual crimes on the subway after conducting big data analysis with KT. The system will be available to the public next month after being applied to patrolling work of police, the KNPA said.

According to police, the app allows users to find out which subway stations are most vulnerable to sexual crimes through color-coded indicators. The indicators range from one to five based on the assessment of risk of sexual crimes.

Combining criminal records with KT’s massive data on public activities, the newly developed app will help law enforcement officers crack down on sexual crimes on the subway, police said.

Police officers patrol a subway station to prevent criminal activities. Yonhap

“The app provides recommendations for patrolling areas based on subway lines and surrounding regions. We can use the system to determine the time and place of crackdowns,” police said in a statement.

Sexual crimes on the subway and in stations have involved the use of smartphone cameras to snap upskirt pictures during busy commuting hours, among other offences.

According to data released by police last year, the number of sexual harassment incidents on the subway has increased over the past few years. About 1,800 sexual harassment cases were reported in 2017, about double that of 2012.

(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)