Seoul City Conducts Joint Nighttime Crackdown on Drunk Driving and Overdue Vehicles... Collaboration Between Districts, Police Agency, and Korea Expressway Corporation

Simultaneous Crackdown on Car Tax Delinquency (Seoul City), Drunk Driving & Illegal Vehicles (National Police Agency), Toll Fee Delinquency (Korea Expressway Corporation)
Nation's First Joint Operation by Four Agencies...On-Site Immediate Detection with Vehicle License Plate Automatic Recognition System Installed

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The 38th Tax Collection Division of Seoul City announced on the 13th that it will conduct a joint nighttime crackdown on the 14th in the Gangnam-gu and Dongdaemun-gu areas together with four organizations: autonomous districts, the National Police Agency, and Korea Expressway Corporation. They will simultaneously crack down on nighttime drunk driving vehicles and delinquent vehicles. This is the first nationwide joint nighttime crackdown involving Seoul City and the four related organizations.

In addition to vehicles delinquent on automobile tax and fines imposed by Seoul City, the crackdown will also target illegal vehicles with different registered owners and actual drivers as identified by the National Police Agency for drunk driving and "Daepocha" (vehicles registered under false names), as well as toll fee delinquencies managed by Korea Expressway Corporation. The goal is to create synergy by conducting simultaneous crackdowns. Notably, delinquent vehicle crackdowns have mainly been conducted during the daytime until now. This operation will be carried out at night when delinquent vehicles are mostly active, aiming to eliminate blind spots in enforcement.

During the crackdown, the four organizations will stop vehicles to conduct drunk driving checks while deploying vehicles equipped with automatic license plate recognition systems to immediately detect delinquent vehicles. Drivers of delinquent vehicles will be encouraged to pay, and if they refuse, their license plates will be confiscated or the vehicles towed. Police patrol cars, motorcycles, tow trucks, and others will also be deployed to crack down on drunk drivers, fine delinquents, and Daepocha vehicles. As of the end of March this year, there are 221,000 vehicles delinquent on automobile tax in Seoul City. The number of delinquent cases is 501,000, with the delinquent amount reaching 55.1 billion won (8% of the total city tax delinquency).

Lee Byung-han, Director of the Seoul City Finance Bureau, said, “Since this is the first time Seoul City is conducting delinquent vehicle crackdowns together with the National Police Agency’s nighttime drunk driving enforcement, we expect this operation to serve as an opportunity for citizens’ tax payment awareness to mature further.” He added, “Seoul City will strongly crack down on automobile tax and fine delinquents through joint enforcement with related organizations and will pursue collection to the end to ensure that honest taxpayers do not feel relatively deprived.”