Municipal police system igniting concerns

Police stand guard in front of the National Police Agency headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap

Critics question over distribution of law enforcement powers

By Kang Seung-woo

Concerns are growing over the government's plan to introduce the autonomous police system that will be placed under direct control of local governments.

Critics say the new police system would lead police to lose political neutrality, while triggering a qualitative difference in security services in accordance with disparities in local governments' financing.

Above all, they are questioning whether the system, run in the United States and Japan, is suitable for Korea, a far smaller country, while still keeping the current national police organization.

As President Moon Jae-in pledged on the campaign trail last year, the government announced last week that the system will be test-run next year in three regions -- Seoul, Sejong and Jeju Island -- before going into full operation nationwide in 2020.

The system is kind of an offset program for the prosecution as the government has given police greater investigative powers, which had been monopolized by prosecutors, as part of efforts to reform the prosecution.

Given that the local police units will be under the control of 17 mayors and governors, there are concerns that they may be politically swayed. In particular, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea nearly swept the local elections, June 13, clinching 14 out of 17 governor and mayoral posts.

There is another negative sentiment about the new system as local police may develop cozy relationships with local influencers.

In response to such concerns, Cho Kuk, the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs said, “The government plans to maintain some of the national police duties to prevent local police units from abusing their authority.”

The local police units are expected to assume duties, including those covering school, sexual and domestic violence, though that has not been officially confirmed.

The introduction of the municipal police system is also raising concerns that each region will have a different security services by local police, depending on the financial condition of local governments.

Seoul and Gyeonggi Province that house half of the country's population will still be able to offer quality services, while people in remote areas may see the level for their regions decline.

“The autonomous police system will not disrupt public order of a certain area overnight, but it is a plausible scenario that there would be a potential quality gap between opulent regions and low-budget ones,” said a police officer.

In addition, many police officers are likely to lopsidedly pick big-budget local governments, leading some areas to be undermanned.

There are many disagreeing fundamentally with the police plan, saying it is not appropriate for Korea.

While the United States is a federal state with a massive territory, Korea with a long history of centralism and a small land area may not obtain the desired effects, critics claim.

“For example, in the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gets involved in a criminal investigation when coordination is required, but local police departments such as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) mainly exert investigative authority,” said another police officer.