Assemblyman Han Byung-do Policy Report
"Lack of Dedicated Personnel" 82.3%
[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] Abuse Prevention Officers (APOs) who are in charge of child abuse cases perceive their workload as heavy and manpower as insufficient.
According to the 2023 National Assembly audit policy report "The Role and Improvement Measures of the Police for Child Abuse Prevention," published on the 26th by Han Byung-do, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, 21 out of 248 Abuse Prevention Officers (85.9%) responded that "the workload is excessive."
Regarding the current level of manpower deployment for Abuse Prevention Officers, 86 (34.7%) said "very insufficient," and 118 (47.6%) said "insufficient," with a total of 82.3% complaining about the lack of dedicated personnel.
When asked about the "most urgent issue to resolve in the child abuse response system" and "the most necessary measure for child abuse prevention," both questions ranked the increase of child abuse response personnel as the top priority.
Representative Han stated, "Through the policy report, it was confirmed that while the workload of Abuse Prevention Officers is excessive, manpower remains insufficient," and added, "It is urgent to increase the number of Abuse Prevention Officers for efficient response to child abuse cases."
He also said, "Along with increasing personnel, the police should actively work on improving related laws to establish immunity privileges for Abuse Prevention Officers to enable effective field response and grant access rights to the National Child Abuse Information System."
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