Korean National Police Agency rolls out in-house AI tool to all regional forces
The National Investigation Headquarters of the Korean National Police Agency has developed an AI-based program that automatically detects sexual exploitation material and generates evidentiary documents, and has begun distributing it to police agencies across the country.
The headquarters said Thursday the program is being rolled out to officers fighting digital sex crimes through the agency's internal network, along with a user guide to support its operation.
Development began in December last year, when the headquarters' cyber terror investigation unit launched the project to rapidly identify illegal recordings — including sexual exploitation material — from digital evidence seized from suspects during an investigation into an IP camera hacking and footage distribution case. The program was immediately deployed in that investigation to help identify key evidence from seized items.
The unit subsequently incorporated feedback from frontline units and conducted performance testing before distributing the refined program to police offices nationwide.
The program locates target files in milliseconds, sharply reducing the burden on investigators. It also automatically generates analysis results in document form, a feature expected to cut investigation time dramatically.
In practice, analysis of roughly 4,000 video files that would have taken about 320 hours under conventional methods can now be completed in about three hours. "It is expected to be a powerful tool for securing evidence at the optimal time in responding to digital sex crimes, where every hour counts," one investigator said.
The headquarters plans to continue gathering feedback from frontline officers to further refine the program's capabilities.
Park Woo-hyun, the agency's cyber investigation review officer, said the production and distribution of sexual exploitation material is a serious crime that destroys the lives of ordinary citizens, and that police are responding with a zero-tolerance policy. "Now that we have dramatically accelerated investigative speed — including the analysis of vast amounts of evidence — through this program, we will track down perpetrators of ever-evolving digital sex crimes to the end and ensure they are severely punished," Park said.
arin@heraldcorp.com
