Arrest warrant sought

[Herald DB]
[Herald DB]

A man in his 50s who threatened a knife rampage after deliberately draining and disabling his electronic ankle monitor has been arrested.

The Jongno Police Precinct in Seoul made an emergency arrest of the suspect, identified only as A, on Sunday on charges of tampering with an electronic monitoring device, and sought an arrest warrant for A on Monday, Yonhap said.

A is accused of calling an official at the Seoul Eastern Probation Office on Sunday and threatening to carry out a knife attack at Cheong Wa Dae, the Korean National Police Agency headquarters and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

A had been placed under a provisional electronic monitoring order following a stalking case.

A also faces charges of deliberately draining the ankle monitor's battery by not charging it.

Officers who responded to a report from the probation office arrested A at around 12:20 p.m. Sunday on a street in Naesu-dong, Jongno-gu.

No weapon was found on A.

While police are responsible for overseeing provisional monitoring measures, the probation office attaches the ankle monitor to the subject and relays alerts — including power failures or charging problems — to police.

The Ministry of Justice said the electronic device cannot be turned off at will, and that the probation office notified police immediately upon receiving a low-battery alert and took all necessary steps to ensure the victim's safety.

The Jongno precinct transferred custody of A to the Songpa precinct, which had originally investigated and referred the stalking case under the Stalking Punishment Act.

Police sought an arrest warrant from the Seoul Eastern Public Prosecution Office on charges including tampering with the ankle monitor. The prosecution office then requested the warrant from a court.

Ministry to expand ankle monitor supervision staff

Separately, the Ministry of Justice recently announced plans to add more than 40 dedicated supervisory staff for electronic ankle monitor management.

The move comes in response to criticism that field management personnel are far too few to handle the growing number of people subject to ankle monitoring and unexpected incidents like this one.

The ministry plans to add 46 supervisory staff for ankle monitor subjects next year, Yonhap said.

If the expansion goes ahead, the total monitoring workforce will grow from 521 to 567.

The number of people subject to ankle monitoring has risen sharply — from 4,421 in 2022 to 4,188 in 2023, 4,474 in 2024 and 4,827 in 2025. As of late July this year, the figure stood at 5,273, up nearly 10 percent from the previous year.

Each staff member currently oversees about 20 subjects.


yul@heraldcorp.com