Returning Detective Mobile Unit, Disappearing Gangsu Unit... Police Announce Organizational Restructuring Plan

Expansion and Reorganization of Mobile Patrol Units
Police Station Section and Unit Chiefs Also Deployed On-Site
New Crime Prevention and Response Department Established

The police will revive the Criminal Mobile Unit and Mobile Patrol Unit and increase on-site patrol personnel by 9,000 to prevent various heinous crimes in advance. Accordingly, all middle management personnel such as section chiefs and team leaders at frontline police stations will also be converted into on-site response personnel.

On the 18th at 3 p.m., Commissioner Yoon Hee-geun held a briefing at the National Police Agency and announced a police organizational reform plan containing these details. Commissioner Yoon explained, "We focused on reorganizing the police organization around the essential public safety tasks of crime prevention and response, and maximizing on-site response capabilities," adding, "With strengthened crime prevention and response functions, I am confident that we will be able to focus more on maintaining the peace of everyday life for the public."

Yoon Hee-geun, Commissioner of the National Police Agency, is holding a briefing at the National Police Agency on the 18th to announce the organizational restructuring plan.
[Photo by National Police Agency]

◆Revived Criminal Mobile Unit and Mobile Patrol Unit, Disappearing Violent Crime Unit= The National Police Agency will operate Mobile Patrol Units (28 units, about 2,600 personnel) in each metropolitan and provincial police agency. The Mobile Patrol Units will be intensively deployed to crime-vulnerable areas such as crowded places, parks, and trails to conduct preventive patrol activities. Administrative personnel from the headquarters, metropolitan and provincial police agencies, and frontline police stations are expected to be reassigned to the Mobile Patrol Units.

Along with this, by converting some personnel from the violent crime teams of metropolitan and provincial police agencies and police stations, regional Criminal Mobile Units (16 units, about 1,300 personnel) will be newly established in all regions except Sejong and Jeju. However, the Criminal Mobile Units, which have mainly focused on post-crime arrest and investigation, will operate with an increased emphasis on preventive criminal activities. In particular, many personnel will be concentrated in high-risk areas such as around entertainment establishments to suppress crime atmospheres, while also taking on roles responding to organized and group crimes.

On the other hand, the Violent Crime Investigation Unit of each metropolitan and provincial police agency will disappear as a trade-off. The Violent Crime Unit, expanded after the Yoo Young-chul case in 2004, was responsible for investigating violent crimes nationwide, not limited to the local agency's jurisdiction. However, under the current organizational reform focusing on crime prevention rather than response, the name Violent Crime Unit will disappear into history. Its roles will be taken over by the Criminal Mobile Unit.

◆Section Chiefs and Team Leaders at Police Stations Also Move to the Field= In line with the direction of strengthening on-site public safety capabilities, departments focused on administrative tasks will be consolidated into a slimmed-down organization, and about 2,900 internal administrative personnel will be reduced and reassigned as on-site response personnel. First, at the headquarters, several functions will be integrated: △ Community Safety Bureau + Traffic Bureau → Community Safety and Traffic Bureau △ Investigation Bureau + Cyber Investigation Bureau → Investigation Bureau △ Criminal Investigation Bureau + Forensic Investigation Management Office → Criminal Investigation Bureau. Additionally, the Public Safety Information Bureau will be reorganized into the Security Information Bureau by abolishing one division (from 4 to 3 divisions), and the Foreign Affairs Bureau will also be reorganized into an International Cooperation Officer system by abolishing one division (from 3 to 2 divisions) to focus on international cooperation functions. About 100 personnel will move from the headquarters to the field.

Metropolitan and provincial police agencies will also reduce their organizations and integrate overlapping tasks, cutting a total of 28 divisions, while reassigning about 1,300 personnel from administrative staff of direct units such as the Police Mobile Unit and departments with lighter workloads compared to frontline police stations to the field. At frontline police stations, considering the significant workload of internal departments, small-scale departments will be consolidated, and about 1,500 middle management personnel such as section chiefs and team leaders will be reduced and converted into on-site response personnel. The intelligence functions of police stations will be integrated into metropolitan and provincial police agencies and operated as a metropolitan-level intelligence activity system, and overlapping foreign affairs police duties will be transferred to security investigation and intelligence functions.

In summary, the National Police Agency expects to secure more than 9,000 additional actual patrol personnel through △ administrative personnel (divided and assigned to the Mobile Patrol Unit and special prevention departments for high-risk individuals, about 2,900) △ Criminal Mobile Unit (about 1,300) △ increased patrol personnel through improvements in regional police operations such as central area stations (about 3,200) △ and utilization of the Police Mobile Unit for patrols.

◆New Crime Prevention and Response Department Established= A new department will be established to integrate the functions of ‘crime prevention, community policing, and 112 situation management’ to comprehensively oversee crime prevention and response. This move addresses ongoing criticism that the crime prevention policy department (Community Safety Bureau) and the core departments responsible for crime prevention and response, such as community policing and 112 situation response (Public Safety Situation Management Office), have been separated, resulting in a lack of organic coordination.

First, at the headquarters, the Crime Prevention and Response Bureau will be newly established by integrating the Crime Prevention Policy Division under the existing Community Safety Bureau and the Public Safety Situation Management Office, which was directly under the Deputy Commissioner. The Crime Prevention and Response Bureau will serve as a core police organization responsible for crime prevention, 112 call response, and oversight of police substations and outposts, and will have two divisions under it dedicated to strengthening and supporting the capabilities of about 50,000 community police officers.

Each metropolitan and provincial police agency will integrate and organize the Crime Prevention and Response Division and the 112 Security Comprehensive Situation Room under the Community Safety Department, and frontline police stations will also integrate and reorganize the existing Community Safety Division and 112 Security Comprehensive Situation Room into the Crime Prevention and Response Division. The National Police Agency expects that by combining organizations related to crime prevention and response through this reform, police resources can be operated more efficiently.

Additionally, the National Police Agency will strengthen special prevention functions for high-risk groups of offenders and victims with a high risk of crime recurrence, such as stalking, domestic violence, child abuse, management of personal information registrants, and victim protection, by integrating related tasks into the Women and Youth Department. A dedicated department for school violence, which has recently attracted significant public attention and concern (Headquarters Women’s Safety and School Violence Countermeasures Officer, Seoul and Southern Gyeonggi Police Agency Youth Protection Division), will also be newly organized.

Meanwhile, the police plan to promptly revise the National Police Agency and its affiliated institutions’ organizational regulations through the State Council and implement delayed promotions for ranks above Senior Superintendent. They will revise laws and duties, conduct pilot operations of some departments to improve the system, and sequentially complete adjustments of equipment, office space, and frontline personnel assignments.

Commissioner Yoon said, “With the reinforcement of on-site personnel, crime prevention activities at the level of special security operations will become regularized, further enhancing the public’s sense of safety,” adding, “Along with organizational reform, we will simultaneously strengthen on-site public safety capabilities through activating cooperative security with autonomous crime prevention groups and local governments, improving education and training levels to enhance crime response capabilities, and steadfastly protect public safety.”