Security Policy of POLICE according to Increase of Elder Crimes

Demographic dynamics is a factor having a huge impact on society and economy of a nation and especially Korea, which is set to mark the eighth out of the countries with eldest population globally based on median age by 2030 is projected to undergo many changes. Change of such megatrend is expected to trigger social welfare problems and be connected to crimes, which means security policy of police should have strategy tailored to the elderly people. In line with the increase of elderly divorce and ‘living alone’ elders in this aging society, they may not only experience dementia and missing but also are positively engaging in insurance frauds and easily become the targets of ever evolving ‘voice phishing’. Should the increase of sexual assaults out of elder crimes and traffic accidents emerge as a social issue, it may trigger generational conflicts and is highly likely to cause the increase of so-called ‘wild and violent elders’. So, police’s security policy should brace for client-oriented trends in a mid and long term in step with the aging society, while elders could be the victims of sophisticated forms of crimes alongside the increase of elder crimes, probably resulting in shortage of correctional facility for elders in the future. From official crime statistics, we can see the increase of elder crimes remarkably, whereas police are currently dealing with this trend just in the level of preventing their abuses and also lack diverse PR strategy, meaning mostly ex post police activity. Under the circumstances, some provincial police offices are promoting public order strategy customized to the aging society but with little effects so far. So, as part of police activity in local community, police are conducting active PR by visiting living-alone elders and many other elder-care facilities, which needs to be expanded further in the future. Therefore, to brace for the aging society, police desperately need to have plans to play an important mediating role in physical health and psychological counseling as an organization not only ensuring the safety of senior citizens from crime but as a leading one in collaborations between organizations. Based on this need, this study examined the present state of elder crimes and damages from crimes, cases of elder crimes in our country, the actual state of police security policy and problems related with elder crimes and damages. By doing so, the study aimed at suggesting security policy measures of police to brace for the aging society in the future.