Police in hot water over repeated blunders

By Park Si-soo

Staff reporter

Police are reeling under a barrage of criticism over scandals that have exposed their ill-managed investigations and supervision of officers.

These have drawn keen public attention due to a corruption scandal involving dozens of former and incumbent prosecutors that have made headlines in recent weeks, dealing a devastating blow to the two pillars of law enforcement.

Two senior prosecutors were dismissed last week for accepting bribes in the form of cash, entertainment and sex with prostitutes paid for by a businessman.

The latest issue involves a police officer charged with sexual harassment of a female college student. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that the authorities had attempted to cover up the case.

According to police, a 38-year-old police officer was caught red-handed forcibly hugging and kissing a 19-year-old woman in Taebaek, Gangwon Province, on June 20.

The officer, surnamed Shin, was under the influence of alcohol at the time and reached an agreement with the victim to drop her request for a criminal investigation into the case in exchange for financial compensation during questioning, police said.

In this situation, the officer is no longer subject to investigation, but it does not necessarily mean he is immune from internal disciplinary action. But his peers didn’t report the case to Shin’s boss, raising suspicion that they had colluded to cover it up.

“Shin is now hospitalized due to a car accident,” said Yoo Hyun-chul, Shin’s boss at Gwanak Police Station in southern Seoul. “Upon his release, we will question and punish him in accordance with applicable rules.”

Touching off the criticism was a news report earlier this month that five investigators at the Yangcheon Police Station in western Seoul had been questioned by the prosecution over their allegedly manipulation of surveillance camera footage showing their use of torture on criminal suspects.

A variety of violent methods were developed in the 1970 and 1980s by the then military junta to crack down on pro-democracy activists. Torture is illegal here and police have so far pledged that such brutal interrogation methods to get a confession have long been prohibited.

But the report showed how rampant they actually are in the police station’s interrogation rooms, where only a limited number of people have access and only a couple of surveillance cameras are installed. Four of the five investigators questioned were arrested.

“Torture during questioning cannot be acceptable no matter what difficulty police may face during an investigation,” President Lee Myung-bak stressed in a cabinet meeting last Tuesday. Police Commissioner General Kang Hee-rak recently offered an official apology.

An ill-organized investigation into a missing female college student in Daegu also caused public outcry.

The 26-year-old student was kidnapped and killed in Daegu by an acquaintance from high school. Evidence was abundant from the beginning of the probe that a person from the high school was involved.

But they paid less attention to it, resulting in lost opportunities to catch the suspect, surnamed Kim, while the victim was still alive.