Petitioner Claims "Police Officer Driven to Death"
The national petition requesting the impeachment of Police Chief Jo Ji-ho surpassed 50,000 signatures in just 8 days.
According to the National Assembly website on the 16th, as of 7:30 a.m. that day, 50,617 people had agreed to the petition titled "Request for impeachment regarding the Police Chief's orders that kill police officers and citizens."
A national petition requires 100 signatures to be reviewed for eligibility, and if it receives 50,000 signatures within 30 days after being posted, it is referred to the relevant standing committee of the National Assembly. Impeachment petitions fall under the jurisdiction of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The committee can review the referred petition and either submit it to the plenary session or discard it.
The petitioner is Police Inspector Kim Geon-pyo, affiliated with the Sineo District Unit of Gimhae Jungbu Police Station in Gyeongnam. Inspector Kim stated, "The Police Chief is neglecting his duties and, instead of presenting measures to address the recent consecutive deaths of police officers, is enforcing orders that drive police officers and innocent citizens to death by implied intent. I strongly request the impeachment of the Police Chief."
This is a backlash against the "Improvement Measures for the Supervision and Management System of Local Police Stations" issued by the Police Agency to frontline police stations last month. The measure requires on-site police officers to record the patrol car's location and reasons for stopping every two hours and to report their location and work status via radio frequently. This was prompted by the case in August where a woman in her 40s, reported missing, was found dead after 36 hours in the back seat of a patrol car at Jinkyo Police Substation of Hadong Police Station in Gyeongnam. At that time, the substation staff were supposed to patrol seven times during the 36 hours the woman was in the car, but they did not patrol even once and did not check inside the patrol car during shift changes.
On the 14th, at a regular press briefing, Chief Jo said regarding the impeachment petition, "I did not respond much because I thought it might act as a mechanism to suppress discussion, but it is clearly a wrong action. I believe public officials, as natural persons, have basic freedom of expression and rights, but certain duties and restrictions are imposed and must be observed, and I have doubts about whether these were observed." He added, "The public demands that police officers do their best during working hours, and this is a minimum level of inspection. I find it difficult to agree with the fact that there is disagreement with this."
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