A man in his 40s who was holding his cell phone upside down and taking hidden pictures of a female student was arrested after being undercover by police.

A man in his 40s who secretly followed a female student in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do and illegally filmed her body parts was caught after an undercover investigation by a police officer who happened to witness the incident on his way to work.

According to the Mobile Patrol Unit of the Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency, they announced on the 16th that they are investigating Mr. A, a man in his 40s, who was booked on charges of violating the Sexual Violence Punishment Act. The man is accused of following and illegally filming female students passing by with their cell phones on a main street in Deokyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do on the 9th.

Previously, it was revealed that Captain Shin Min-hyuk, a member of the Northern Police Agency’s Crime Prevention Response Department and Mobile Patrol Unit 2, happened to witness Mr. A’s crime scene on the road while driving to work at around 8:20 a.m. on the 9th.

Mr. A was following a female student with his cell phone (camera) turned upside down, and Inspector Shin, who witnessed the antics, immediately recognized it as a crime of illegal filming, stopped his car nearby, and chased after Mr. A. However, Mr. A had disappeared from the scene.

After securing closed-circuit (CCTV) footage from nearby shopping malls, he identified Mr. A’s crime and his movements. Afterwards, he visited the same crime scene at the same time the next day and continued the undercover investigation. On the 11th, two fellow police officers and I searched the area around Mr. A’s address, but his whereabouts were still unknown.

He returned to the crime scene around 7:50 a.m. on the 11th and while searching the area, he found Mr. A’s vehicle parked with the engine on. When a female student passed in front of his vehicle, Mr. A got out of his vehicle and followed the female student with his cell phone, and it was reported that Inspector Shin raided the scene.

Inspector Shin approached Mr. A and asked, “What did you film?”, but Mr. A resisted and attempted to run away. Inspector Shin knocked down Mr. A, who was running away, and arrested him at the scene.

It was confirmed that many illegal videos were found on the cell phone of Mr. A, who was arrested. Accordingly, the police booked Mr. A without detention on charges of violating the law on the punishment of sexual violence (filming using cameras, etc.) and are investigating him for other crimes.

The Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency’s mobile patrol unit was launched on February 22nd and has been intensively cracking down and providing guidance on violations of law and order and disorderly conduct as of the end of March. The police are carrying out crime prevention activities, including arresting about 220 important wanted persons and processing about 40 criminal cases.

In fact, the damage caused by digital sex crimes such as illegal filming is not something that happened yesterday or today. According to data received from the National Police Agency by People Power Party lawmaker Jeon Bong-min, a member of the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee, on September 23, 2022, the number of cases reported for illegal filming was 29,396 from 2017 to 2021.

By year, it decreased from 6,465 cases in 2017 to 5,925 cases in 2018, but then rapidly increased to 7,762 cases in 2019. In 2020, the number decreased again to 5,032 cases, but in 2021, it can be seen that the number was 6,212 cases, an increase of 1,180 cases (19%) compared to the previous year.

Even looking at the 6,212 cases arrested in 2021 by location, the largest number of crimes occurred in multi-family homes such as apartments, at 811 (13.1%). 516 cases (8.3%) occurred on the streets, 411 cases (6.6%) in stations and waiting rooms, 360 cases (5.8%) in the subway, and 113 cases (1.8%) occurred in schools with many teenagers.

Ga-yeon Park, online news reporter [email protected]

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