Police Bureau established despite opposition from police

Politics

Published: 02 Aug. 2022, 18:36

Police Bureau established despite opposition from police

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, right, shakes hands with Senior Superintendent General Kim Soon-ho, the new director of the ministry's police bureau, at the Central Government Complex in Jongno District, central Seoul on Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The Interior Ministry on Tuesday formed a new bureau to oversee the police, overriding opposition from police officers and marking the re-establishment of a ministry organization to superise the law enforcement agency after 31 years.

Police officials and rank-and-file officers have vehemently protested the Interior Ministry’s plan to establish the Police Bureau, arguing that it would damage the National Police Agency’s (NPA) political independence and neutrality.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min has argued that the bureau is necessary to maintain oversight over the NPA once the agency’s authority expands in September, when it takes over investigative powers from the state prosecution service,

The bureau, with 16 people led by Senior Superintendent General Kim Soon-ho, is charged with drawing up key policies and regulations related to the police, recommending candidates for senior police positions and adopting other measures to support the police agency.

Speaking to reporters at the Central Government Complex in Seoul after formally taking up the helm of the police bureau, Kim said he would work to assuage fears about his organization’s work, which critics say could be used to direct police officers to engage in politically motivated investigations.

“We will address these concerns by expanding channels of communication and empathy,” he said.

Kim also told reporters that he feels “a great sense of duty” stemming from his knowledge of the concerns voiced by his police agency colleagues and the public, and promised to “inform the media and agency colleagues of the Police Bureau’s ongoing work.”

He also promised “to fulfill this duty so that we can get closer to our police officers and act as a bridge between the police and the people we serve.”

The composition of personnel at the new bureau is already quite different from that of the police hierarchy it oversees.

While alumni of the Korean National Police University dominate the NPA’s upper echelons, only one out of 16 bureau staff are graduates of the university. Twelve of the bureau staff are former NPA officials who entered the agency through the civil service examination route.

In an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo, Jeon Kyeong-soo, president of the Korean Society of Drugs and Crime, suggested the assignment of civil servants instead of former police cadets to oversee the police agency was a deliberate choice to break up a clique of officers that dominates the police force.

“The exclusion of Korean National Police University graduates from the Police Bureau is the first step to diluting their dominance over the police force,” Jeon said.

Police were controlled by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the precursor of the Interior Ministry, until 1991, when the National Police Agency was made independent of the ministry to ensure its independence and neutrality.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]