Chungnam Autonomous Police Focus on 'Public Safety Stabilization' in the Phase of Daily Life Recovery

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Chungnam Autonomous Police plan to focus on stabilizing public safety, considering concerns about increases in drunk driving and elder abuse during the post-COVID-19 recovery phase.

On the 26th, the Chungnam Autonomous Police Committee announced that it will jointly work with the Chungnam Provincial Police Agency to stabilize public safety.

Earlier, at this month's regular meeting, the committee submitted proposals on strengthening traffic violation crackdowns and promoting elder abuse prevention plans, which were reviewed and approved, deciding that the provincial police chief will take command.

The crackdown on traffic violations will be implemented in anticipation of increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic and more drinking gatherings due to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

From January to April, there were 821 drunk driving traffic accidents in Chungnam, a decrease of 39 cases (4.5%) compared to the same period last year (860 cases). However, the committee believes that with the easing of restrictions during the recovery phase, the number of drunk driving and drunk driving traffic accidents, which had decreased, may rise again.

Accordingly, the committee and the provincial police agency plan to focus on preventing accidents by concentrating traffic police, motorcycles, patrol cars, and undercover patrol cars in high-accident areas to conduct crackdowns and visible preventive activities.

Additionally, as elder welfare facility usage becomes possible and elder traffic accidents increase, education and promotional activities to reduce elder traffic fatalities will be strengthened.

Responses to the increasing number of elder abuse reports in the region will also be carried out. In Chungnam, elder abuse reports increased to 324 cases in 2019 and 346 cases in 2020.

In this regard, the committee and the provincial police agency will strengthen monitoring of elders at risk of abuse currently under management and those with two or more reports, and jointly visit care facilities with elder protection agencies to conduct elder abuse prevention education and promotional activities targeting facility residents.

Lee Si-jun, Secretary-General of the committee, said, “The purpose of the autonomous police is to proactively prevent harm to residents. Since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions has led to a sense of liberation, increasing factors such as drunk driving and elder abuse, we plan to focus on preventive activities to stabilize public safety.”