The police has came under fire for lax management of ex-convicts and their inability to prevent crimes by second offenders, as it was revealed Tuesday that they had failed to monitor an ex-convict suspected of murdering a 63-year-old woman on a mountain trail.

The suspected killer, identified only by his surname Kim, was not included in the police’s monitoring list of ex-convicts for the past four months, which allegedly allowed him to dodge them and commit the crime.

The victim was found dead in the early hours of Sunday, with stab wounds on her neck and stomach near the entrance of the Mount Suraksan trail in northeastern Seoul.

In South Korea, the Justice Ministry notifies local police in the district where ex-convicts had lived before serving a prison term, upon their release. Local police then classify the offenders into three groups, trace and monitor them to prevent second crimes.

In 2014, 45.3 percent of the crimes that took place in Korea were committed by those who were already convicted of other charges, according to the Institute of Justice. The figure stood at 46.2 percent in 2013 and 45.7 percent in 2012.

Kim, 61, who completed serving his 15-year jail term in January on charges of robbery and murder, was supposed to be included on the list of monitoring by Gwanak Police Station as he had lived at an apartment in Sillim-dong, southern Seoul.

But police reportedly failed to register him in its database after being unable to confirm his address with the local community center. Police later learned that Kim had moved to Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-Province, but did not inform Danwon Police Station in the city of his relocation.

Police admitted to their error but said, “There are no ways (to keep track of him through) such system as GPS, nor do we have the right to review his communication records.”

Lee Yung-hyeock, a police administration professor at Konkuk University, pointed to the absence of a law behind police’ lax monitoring of ex-offenders. 

“Police manage ex-criminals in accordance with its internal rules, with no law in place. Without enough legal basis, it is practically difficult for police officers to track offenders every day,” Lee said.

The National Police Agency was already slammed for its poor management of ex-convicts last year in light of the murder of a woman at a mall in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, by Kim Il-gon, who had committed 22 crimes.

“The society reached a point where it needs to decide between safety and freedom,” said Kwack Dae-kyung, who teaches police administration at Dongkuk University. “The enhanced monitoring of ex-criminals violates human rights, so the government needs to seek a social consensus about the level of safety we need and how much freedom can be sacrificed.”  

Kim, meanwhile, was taken to the Seoul Northern District Court, to attend a court’s review of a detention warrant earlier in the day. He did not answer any questions and entered straight into the court building.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)