Ulsan Police Agency bans after-hours private contact with subordinates

By Park Si-soo

Ulsan Police Agency has banned its officials from making private after-hours contact with subordinates, especially the opposite sex, as part of efforts to prevent abuse of power and sexual violence.

It is the first police agency in South Korea to adopt such a rule. The move follows female officials' collective complaints in August about after-hours private contacts from male senior officials, many of which were unwanted invitations to dinners or other private events.

The six-point ordinance bans one-to-one contact by phone, text message and social networking services and the repeated sending of unrequested documents. But it restricts nothing between same-sex officials or in group chat rooms.

Officials must also check their own possible sexual conduct with a smartphone app produced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.