"I'm a Police Officer"... Repeated Fare Evasion and Assault Lead to Job Loss and Imprisonment

Changwon District Court, 1 Year 2 Months Prison Sentence Confirmed on Appeal
Crime Committed Even After Police Suspension... Ultimately Dismissed

A former police officer who committed dine-and-dash and assaulted employees while trying to cover up his crimes by claiming his police status was sentenced to prison again in the appellate court.

The Changwon District Court Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Lee Ju-yeon) sentenced A, a man in his 30s who was indicted on charges including fraud, to 1 year and 2 months in prison, the same as the original sentence, according to Yonhap News on the 19th. A was prosecuted for assaulting an employee who demanded payment for drinks at a bar in Busanjin-gu, Busan, on October 15 last year, and for disrupting business by damaging the interior and fixtures (charges including fraud). At the time, he smashed a whiskey bottle and pressed it against the employee’s neck, and also threatened to punish the employee for false accusation by invoking his police status.

Changwon District Court Exterior View

Even after being suspended from duty due to these actions, on the 31st of the same month, A threw and broke an empty whiskey bottle on a road in Seongsan-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongnam Province, and after an argument with a startled passerby, he knocked the passerby to the ground and assaulted him multiple times. In the following month, November of the same year, he repeatedly committed crimes such as not paying tens of thousands of won for drinks at a karaoke bar and causing disturbances at the bar. A, who was a member of the Gyeongnam regional police station at the time, was eventually dismissed in November last year.

The first trial court stated, "The defendant has already caused multiple disputes but instead of restraining himself, he committed crimes in a more brazen and malicious manner, damaging the trust and integrity of the police, causing significant harm to the public interest," and sentenced him to prison. The appellate court explained the reason for upholding the original sentence, saying, "Although A admits to the crimes and shows remorse, this does not constitute a fundamental change in circumstances that would warrant a more favorable sentence than the original."

Meanwhile, according to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the People Power Party on the 18th, about 1,600 police officers have been disciplined over the past three years (2021 to April 2024). Among them, serious disciplinary actions included 60 dismissals, 140 removals, 80 demotions, and 459 suspensions. Minor disciplinary actions included 346 pay reductions and 515 reprimands. The most common reasons for discipline were damage to dignity (690 cases), followed by violations of regulations (646), negligence of duty (186), and bribery (78). By rank, there were 32 officers at the level of Senior Superintendent or above, 91 Superintendents, 358 Chief Inspectors, and 628 Inspectors, with senior officers at Chief Inspector level or above accounting for 30%.