Police Leadership to Meet Field Staff... Scheduled Tour Meetings at Provincial Police Agencies

On the 21st, the Advisory Committee on Police System Improvement of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced recommendations for police control measures, including the establishment of a police bureau within the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, at the National Police Agency in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. / Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The police leadership has decided to tour the provincial police agencies to meet frontline staff. This move is interpreted as an effort to resolve internal opposition to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's (MOIS) recent plan to establish a 'Police Bureau.'

On the 6th, the National Police Agency announced that senior directors at the bureau level will visit each provincial police agency on the 7th and from the 11th to the 13th to hold meetings with workplace councils and frontline staff. Starting with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency on the 7th, and concluding with a visit to the Chungbuk Provincial Police Agency on the 13th, they plan to tour all provincial police agencies nationwide.

They will focus on gathering opinions regarding MOIS's police system improvement plan. Recently, Minister Lee Sang-min of MOIS has also been visiting provincial police agencies and local police stations to emphasize the legitimacy of establishing the new police organization. On that day, the minister visited the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency and stated, "The establishment of the Police Bureau will not cause changes at the frontline of public safety nor impose new controls on the police."

MOIS plans to announce the final police system improvement plan on the 15th. Regarding this, Yoon Hee-geun, the current deputy commissioner of the National Police Agency and a candidate for the next commissioner, said, "We will go through consultations with MOIS on specific details to ensure that police opinions are reflected as much as possible."