Bill seeks joint police-probation response when electronic-anklet wearers show warning signs

Lawmakers are pushing to establish a legal basis for police and probation offices to respond jointly when electronic-anklet wearers show warning signs such as threatening others with a weapon.

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun, who represents Incheon's Dong-gu and Michuhol-gu B district, said Monday he had introduced a bill to partially amend the Act on the Attachment of Electronic Monitoring Devices.

Under current law, probation offices and investigative agencies may share information with each other, but there is no separate procedure requiring them to respond jointly to warning signs, Yoon said.

The bill would allow the heads of probation offices and police agencies to request joint response and cooperation from each other when a wearer engages in conduct — such as threatening others with a weapon — that poses a risk to another person's life or physical safety. An agency head who receives such a request would be required to comply unless there is a specific reason not to.

In such cases, the head of the probation office would be required to assess the wearer's risk of reoffending without delay and to conduct reassessments on a regular basis, and to record and manage both the assessment results and the details of the joint response.

If the bill passes the plenary session, it would provide a legal basis for moving away from the current practice of the two agencies handling at-risk wearers separately, and would ensure that wearers flagged as dangerous receive periodic reoffending risk assessments.

The bill was prompted by an incident on Oct. 13 in which a man wearing an electronic anklet went on a stabbing rampage at a mixed-use commercial complex in Incheon, injuring several people.

"I hope the victims of the recent knife attack make a swift recovery," Yoon said. "I will work to strengthen institutional safeguards against violent crime so that heinous offenses can be eradicated and people can go about their daily lives with peace of mind."