It was confirmed that the police ordered external research services several times over 7 years, spending more than 100 million won in taxpayer money, calling for the eradication of employee misconduct.
However, even while the research results are being applied to the field, irregularities continue, and in the end, the issuance of 'special warnings' that rely on the individual police officers' vigilance is repeated.
โ โStomach diagnosis studyโ colorlessโฆ Five years ago, 40 million won was spent to study โdisappearing adultsโ.
As a result of Yonhap News' analysis of the research service order details disclosed in the government policy research management system 'Prism' on the 6th, the National Police Agency has received at least three external research reports on employee misconduct issues since 2019, each with a budget of tens of millions of won.
A recent example is the research project to โprepare a diagnostic model to prevent police misconductโ ordered in April 2024. The National Police Agency Audit Office spent 52.49 million won on the Korean Society of Public Administration.
The study proposed that the 'misconduct risk' index be calculated for each government office by deriving factors such as drunk driving and sexual misconduct in each disciplinary case.
At that time, the prosecution arrested and detained Inspector A of the Seocho Police Station in Seoul on charges of bribery, and Inspector B of the Seoul Metropolitan Government Mobile Patrol was also arrested while drunk and urinating on the street and screaming.
Accordingly, the then Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, Yoon Hee-geun, even issued a 'special alert to eradicate violations of duty', showing his determination to crack down on misconduct.
The Audit Office also announced in a confirmation letter of the research results in November of that year, "We will support consulting and prevention activities for front-line government offices using the misconduct diagnosis model (proposed by the study)."
A police official said, "Based on the service results, we piloted customized misconduct diagnosis and on-site consulting at the headquarters level last year, and plan to expand it to the city/provincial office level this year."
However, the system improvement plan based on the report failed to take root in the field, and after about two years, the National Police Agency reissued a special warning on public service discipline on the 28th of last month.
This is because police officers' job-related misconduct continued to occur across the country, including the false closure of the Jeju disappearance case and the sloppy investigation of the Jang Yoon-ki case.
Meanwhile, the National Police Agency's Life Safety Bureau ordered Ajou University in 2021 to conduct a study on legislative measures for effective search and investigation of missing adults, spending 41.5 million won.
This study included a proposal to classify missing adult cases into simple runaways and 'high-risk disappearances', and on the 4th, more than five years later, the police announced that they would prepare a legal basis, such as location information for missing adults, as a follow-up measure to the Jeju disappearance case.
โ 7 years ago, on the operating table for โGangnam Police Station corruptionโโฆ The squeamishness is still there
In 2021, the police entrusted the 'Research on Police Integrity Measurement Design' to Pai Chai University with a similar purpose and executed a budget of 38 million won.
At the time, as investigative authority increased due to the adjustment of the investigative powers of the prosecution and police, the police designated 2021 as the first year of 'police reform as perceived by the public' and promoted anti-corruption policies. This service was also part of that.
In 2019, when the 'Burning Sun' controversy arose, a specific service was ordered for the Gangnam Police Station. This service also cost 19.96 million won.
It was an attempt to establish a structure in which wrongdoing was repeated by closely analyzing the characteristics of the area where there were many attempts at solicitation and the unique organizational culture of Gangnam.
At that time, researchers at the Korean Standards Association conducted a survey of 875 people in Gangnam.
Among these employees, the prevailing view was that the repeated corruption was the result of a police officer's 'personal deviation' that had nothing to do with Gangnam's unique culture.
Seven years have passed since then, but the controversy surrounding Gangnam Seo has grown again. This is because suspicions about the investigation of broadcaster Yang Jeong-won were tampered with arose early this year.
Inspector Song, who was involved in the suspicion, joined the police in 1999 and was relatively recently assigned to Gangnam West in February 2023, but was recently transferred.
According to the indictment, the circumstances surrounding his investigation were revealed around July of that year, in fact right after he moved to Gangnam Station.
Based on this, some within Gangnam Prefecture are of the opinion that the misconduct in question is closer to an individual's deviation than a structural problem of the government office.
โ Taking advantage of skepticism that โ140,000 people cannot be controlledโ, personal misconduct spreads
As such, opinions are rising again within the police that it is realistically impossible to control individual deviations or lack of ethical awareness due to the nature of a large organization with 140,000 members.
However, experts point out that an organizational culture that blames wrongdoing on individuals and does not even properly implement research results can become a catalyst that increases the possibility of individual deviance.
Min Kyeong-seon, a professor at Chonbuk National University who is an expert in the field of anti-corruption and was in charge of research on the 2024 police misconduct prevention model, assumed that "there are so many police officers that there are bound to be many incidents and accidents."
However, he explained, "The police basically have a certain amount of authority, the exercise of authority is secretive, and it is difficult for others to access it, so it is an environment favorable to corruption," and "If monitoring and supervision of authority is weak, there are bound to be members who try to abuse it."
Professor Min also pointed out that there are limits to ex post measures such as 'severe punishment when misconduct is discovered'.
It was also pointed out that unlike two years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) is developing rapidly and the foundation for a big data analysis system has been laid.
Professor Min said, โNow is the era of big data analysis,โ and suggested, โAs the number and type of misconduct cases by police station across the country can be analyzed in detail, three measures of education, prior prevention, and post-punishment should be implemented simultaneously.โ
The police are aware of the analysis of Professor Min and other research leaders, and are considering these suggestions from various angles and are concentrating on coming up with a fundamental solution.
A police official said, "Last year, we prepared measures such as improving the effectiveness of warnings about misconduct, activating an internal corruption reporting center, and operating a self-diagnosis table for abuse of power. This year, we are also implementing or planning to prevent misconduct in various ways, such as improving personnel, inspection, case inquiries, and personal contact-related systems."
He said, โWe plan to block structural incentives, not individual deviations, and prepare measures that can be felt on the front lines.โ
