[At a Crossroads] S Traffic Accused of Supplying Chinese-Made Bodycams to Police Under False Labels...Public Project Credibility at Stake

Allegations of Supplying Chinese-Made Bodycams Relabeled as Taiwan OEM
Public Sector Revenue at Risk If Designated as "Unqualified Contractor"

Photo comparing bodycam products. Provided by Kang Myunggu, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee (Gumi City Eul) from the People Power Party.

KOSDAQ-listed company S Traffic has become the subject of an investigation over allegations that it supplied the police with Chinese-made bodycams by re-labeling them. The police had excluded Chinese products on national security grounds, but S Traffic is accused of replacing Chinese products with those labeled as being made in Taiwan. As most of S Traffic’s revenue comes from public (B2G) projects, concerns have emerged in the market about potential significant impact on the company.

According to the industry, the police are reportedly investigating S Traffic for fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and for obstructing the execution of official duties through fraudulent means.

Previously, in May last year, the police conducted a “Police Bodycam Procurement Project” worth KRW 19.5 billion. Bodycams are small cameras attached to the body to record video and audio at the scene during law enforcement activities. As these devices can have a significant impact on national security, the police made “exclusion of Chinese-made products” a condition from the outset in the bid announcement.

Two months after the announcement, in July last year, the KT consortium was selected as the bodycam supplier. S Traffic participated as the supplier of the bodycam devices within the consortium. The consortium stated that it would deliver bodycams developed in-house via an OEM manufacturing process in Taiwan.

However, S Traffic had never manufactured bodycams before this project. As a result, there were suspicions within the industry that the bodycams S Traffic supplied were Chinese-made. In fact, the bodycams provided by S Traffic are similar to the SC800 model from Hytera, a Chinese company. Both their appearance and performance are nearly identical.

Hytera is a Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer specializing in industrial wireless communication equipment and solutions such as professional walkie-talkies (DMR, TETRA), bodycams, and control systems. The company is blacklisted in the United States due to issues related to technology theft, trade disputes, and security sanctions.

According to publicly available photographs, the bodycam supplied by S Traffic to the police is believed to be branded as “Safecam” with a model number of “ST-5GC25.” This product is currently being sold by a Taiwanese company called Realtalk. Realtalk’s operating company, Poscom Technology, is a Taiwanese partner of China’s Hytera.

The market is concerned that if these allegations are proven true, S Traffic’s business may be disrupted. S Traffic mainly operates in traffic-related systems integration (SI), and most of its revenue comes from government agencies or public sector clients. Major clients include Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) and Korea Expressway Corporation.

If it is confirmed that S Traffic deceived government agencies and violated bid conditions to unlawfully supply bodycams, the company could be designated as an “unqualified contractor.” Being designated as an unqualified contractor would result in up to two years of restrictions on participating in all public projects commissioned by the government, local governments, and public institutions.

In fact, in 2019, VitroSys was designated as an unqualified contractor, resulting in a six-month suspension from participating in public institution bids and eventually entering court receivership. At the time, VitroSys focused mainly on national infrastructure and IT control systems, similar to S Traffic. In the case of Seojeon Gijeon, being designated as an unqualified contractor led to a sharp drop in performance and the company’s stock price hitting the lower limit.

Regarding this matter, an S Traffic representative stated, “Currently, the business division head is clarifying the issue during the police investigation, and we will be able to provide further details once the investigation concludes.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.