KOREAN NET

The law enforcement agencies of Korea and Germany have launched the Scientific Policing Cooperation Center for responding to crimes and sharing investigative know-how. Shown are attendees on May 8 posing for photos at the opening ceremony for the center at the LKA (State Criminal Police Office) of Dusseldorf in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. (Korea National Police Agency)

y Hong Angie

The Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) and a German counterpart have launched a cooperation center to jointly respond to crimes and share investigative know-how.

This is the first center set up by the police agencies of both countries for research and development (R&D) of law enforcement.

The KNPA on May 9 said it hosted the opening ceremony for the Scientific Policing Cooperation Center with the LKA, aka the State Criminal Police Office of Dusseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhein-Westphalia.

Based in Dusseldorf, the center is a follow-up to the joint declaration of intent signed by the KNPA and North Rhein-Westphalia's Ministry of the Interior in October last year.

The ceremony officially launched the center's activities to jointly develop effective anti-crime technology by sharing and developing benchmarks in scientific and police investigations of both countries.

The first joint project for the center was participation in GPEC 2024, Europe's largest academic conference for information sharing and exhibition of private police equipment. Companies from the Korean side that attended this event included the low-risk handgun developer SNT and Noah Ventures, a developer of artificial intelligence to analyze investigative data.

The two sides also held a joint seminar on scientific law enforcement, where they discussed the future of police vehicles that both countries are considering for joint R&D operations.

The center will also promote deployment of professional detectives to boost investigative capacity. Those deployed from the KNPA will help their German counterparts by providing clues and sharing key techniques to solve major crimes in Germany.

To this end, two detectives from the KNPA and Daejeon Police Agency last month were sent to the center for doing joint research on responses to cybercrimes and investigative techniques with two counterparts from the German state's LKA.

In the second half of this year, the two sides will also devise joint research agenda to produce results led by the center.

A KNPA source said, "The launch of the Korean-German Scientific Policing Cooperation Center is the first step toward 'K-public Security,' which responds to cross-border crimes and efficiently and safely supports the jobs of police officers in each country."

shong9412@korea.kr