Police to step up regular checks on victims’ smartwatches and strengthen management system

[Financial News] Police will step up checks on the operating status of smartwatches provided to victims of crime to ensure the devices can be used properly in emergencies. The plan is to strengthen victim protection by improving regular check procedures through the existing management system.
According to the National Police Agency on the 13th, police plan to add procedures to the victim protection manual requiring officers dedicated to victim support to check smartwatch functionality regularly through the existing management system. If a smartwatch has been switched off for about a week, an alert will be sent to the officer in charge, who will check on the victim and whether the device is being used, among other things.
Police already require the investigator in charge to contact each victim once a week to check whether safety measures are being implemented. In the course of assessing whether the perpetrator has approached the victim and whether additional protective measures are needed, officers also check that the smartwatch is being used properly.
Police plan to establish a systematic process for regularly checking smartwatch functionality using the existing management system.
The improvements were prompted by a case in Seoul’s Songpa District involving the murder of a mother-in-law and the kidnapping of a wife. The smartwatch provided to the victim was not used to make an emergency report during the crime, and the possibility that its battery had run out was cited as a cause.
[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter