Long-serving local police face scrutiny as oversight fears grow over misconduct risks
More than 17,000 officers have stayed at the same precinct for a decade or longer, fueling debate over regional rotations and oversight as prosecutors lose a key review role.
Police forces are seen escorting the National Assembly's special investigation committee outside the SK Olympic Handball Stadium in Songpa District in southern Seoul on July 2.NEWS1
More than 17,000 police officers have spent a decade or longer at the same precinct, raising concerns about corrupt ties between officers and members of the community, especially once prosecutors lose their authority to order supplementary investigations — the main outside review of police casework for years.
As of July 14, 17,130 officers ranked senior inspector or below had served 10 years or more at the same precinct, according to figures the National Police Agency provided to the office of Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker Lee Sang-sik.
Limited to senior inspectors and inspectors, the ranks that run sections and teams inside a precinct, the number comes to 13,906.
The pattern is starker at the agencies that oversee those precincts. In the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency, 355 officers ranked senior inspector or below were in their 34th year with the same agency as of July 14, according to figures given to DP lawmaker Chai Hyun-il.
The Gwangju and Daejeon agencies, both opened in 2007, counted 804 and 705 officers in their 19th year, and Ulsan counted 348 in their 27th year.
The numbers have drawn attention since the detention this month of a team leader at the Gwangsan Police Precinct in Gwangju who is accused of concealing evidence in the suspected murder of a high school girl by the son of a fellow police officer.
The case has put a piece of Korean wordplay back into circulation: "hyangchal" — combining the words for one's home region and police.
A police logo is seen in a search and seizure boxJOINT PRESS CORPS
Long tenures cut both ways.
The better officers know a district, the steadier they can police it. However, the same familiarity makes it easier to go soft on a case, or to leak investigations to members of the community.
In May 2018, an officer on a cybercrime team at a Busan precinct — where he had been posted for over two years — called in a man he had detained and sent to prosecutors on charges of unauthorized fund-raising. The officer promised to help him get a better outcome on appeal and took 4 million won ($2,720) from him over more than 10 meetings.
The officer also fed him information about the investigation. The man belonged to the Ulsan branch of a nationwide fund-raising ring, and the officer told him an arrest warrant had been issued for the ring's leader in Incheon. He then relayed the warrant's execution in real time, tipping off that officers were heading to Incheon to pick up the ringleader.
The man told other members of the ring that he had someone inside.
"I gave him candy, so he should help," he said, referring to the bribes.
Police are especially prone to leaks or other forms of investigative misbehavior when current or former colleagues are under investigation.
A former officer dismissed in 2019 for secretly running an illegal rental car business in Gyeonggi used two serving officers to press for investigations against him to be dropped or scaled down. He had known one of the officers since their days as conscripted auxiliary police — a friendship of nine years — and had joined the force alongside the other.
He gave them about 57 million won in cash and rental cars. In return, he obtained advance copies of question sheets drawn up for police interviews and had other requests granted, including an introduction to an officer in Busan. The arrangement held until 2024.
Lawmakers stand and watch police officers clear a path toward a vote-counting center in southern Seoul on July 2.YONHAP
One remedy under discussion is moving officers out of the districts where they have built their networks.
"The reality is that distrust exists about the fairness of police investigations," said Lee Woong-hyuk, a police science professor at Konkuk University. "I think it is time to introduce regional rotations, starting with the investigation, inspection and intelligence units, where collusion has to be guarded against."
"Compensation and working conditions have to be shored up as the system takes effect, and rotations should be considered for prosecution investigators too, so that similar controversies do not recur there," Lee added.
A former judge-turned-attorney with extensive experience serving in regional jurisdictions said that because police officers, whose job security is not fully guaranteed, are solely responsible for investigations, they are highly susceptible to outside pressure from influential figures in local communities.
“Unless prosecutors retain the authority to conduct supplementary investigations or all cases are once again referred to the prosecution so that an independent third party can review investigative findings, regional rotation assignments could serve as an alternative,” he said.
Officers in the ranks are not convinced that rotations are the answer.
A police captain said that while concerns over overly close ties between police officers and local communities are widely recognized within the force, a rotation system alone would not solve the problem.
"It is true that the issue is recognized even among front line officers, but the same problems could recur under a rotation system," he said. "The priority should be strengthening internal oversight to ensure misconduct is detected and disciplinary measures are carried out effectively."
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
