Police to Request Ruling Party for 'Increase of 2,000 Investigative Personnel'

Request for Additional Personnel Planned in Line with Police-Prosecutor Investigation Authority Adjustment

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The police have decided to request an increase in related personnel from the Democratic Party of Korea to align with the revised investigation system following the adjustment of prosecution and police investigative authority.

According to the police on the 27th, the National Police Agency plans to request the ruling Democratic Party to increase police investigative personnel by more than 2,000 during budget negotiations among government ministries. Specifically, they seek 42 essential operational personnel for investigation command and policy at the National Investigation Headquarters, and 703 personnel for investigation review to replace prosecution-led investigation command. They also see a need for an additional 161 personnel dedicated to case record management.

Internally, it was assessed that the current quota of 393 investigation reviewers is insufficient to replace the work previously performed by about 2,000 prosecutors. Therefore, they argue that 949 reviewers are needed to allow for 2 to 6 reviewers per police station. In particular, since five provincial police agencies in Ulsan, Jeju, Gangwon, Chungbuk, and Jeonbuk do not have investigation review officers, the establishment of related organizations is also deemed necessary.

Additionally, to enable each provincial police agency to respond to major cases, they proposed personnel reinforcements as follows: 96 for major case complaints and accusations, 34 for industrial safety and medical accidents, 44 for telecommunications financial fraud, 75 for cyber investigations, and 64 for digital forensic analysts. Regarding investigative personnel by team at all police stations, they also see a need to increase by 134 for the economic team complaints and accusations, 447 for the women and violent crimes team, 50 for drug investigations, 111 for traffic investigations, and 206 for cyber investigations.

Furthermore, the police expressed the opinion that middle managers at frontline police stations are commanding too many personnel and suggested that the investigation division should be split into the economic division and intelligence division, and the criminal division into the criminal division and violent crimes division.