The Ministry of the Interior and Safety is seeking to establish a new bureau to tighten its grip over police, raising concerns about the political neutrality of the police force. Specifically, the ministry plans to upgrade its current bureau of public safety policy, which isn't classified as an official administrative unit, to an official unit so it can oversee various police-related matters by bridging the ministry and the police.
The ministry's move to create this “police bureau” comes as police officers are set to take on more investigative roles from prosecutors under recently revised laws aimed at reducing and ultimately abolishing the prosecution's investigative powers. Indeed no one can deny the need to check the police's abuse of authority. But if the past is any guide, it is certainly dangerous to allow the government to control the police directly.
During the authoritarian rule here, the police were under the control of the then-Ministry of Home Affairs. So some political scandals involving those in power often used to be hidden or doctored. In accordance with the country's democratization, the police became independent in 1991 with a particular aim to ensure their neutrality. If the interior ministry continues to pursue the establishment of the police bureau, it would mean the regression of police independence.
What's more, Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min has already revealed his intention to control the police by conducting interviews with six senior police officials who were promoted recently to the rank of chief superintendent general and could be the next commissioner general of the National Police Agency.
Police officers can protect the rights and interests of citizens only when they are independent from political power. What the government should do is to support the police from behind the scenes so that they can perform their duties properly rather than trying to control them directly. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration should abandon its plan to set up the police bureau within the interior ministry.