Police officials protest against launch of supervisory bureau

Ryu Sam-young, the senior superintendent of Ulsan Jungbu Police Station, speaks on Saturday after a meeting with fellow senior police officials from across the country at the Police Human Resource Development Institute in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, over the interior ministry's plan to establish a supervisory bureau over the national police force. Yonhap

Presidential chief of staff criticizes police over collective action, calling it inappropriate

By Ko Dong-hwan

Police officials from around Korea on Saturday organized and participated in a rare collective action, gathering together to state their objection to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's bid to establish a new supervisory bureau over the national police force.

Some 190 senior police officials from across the country ― one-third of the country's senior police officials ― responded to a call by Ulsan Jungbu Police Station Senior Superintendent Ryu Sam-young to gather at the Police Human Resource Development Institute in the city of Asan, South Chungcheong Province.

After a discussion that lasted nearly four hours, the participants concluded that the interior ministry needs to get the consensus of the country's 130,000 police officers for the plan for the supervisory bureau before pushing for it. So far, a visibly large number of police officers have publicly objected to the bid, by which new Interior Minister Lee Sang-min will officially wield the upper hand over the head of the National Police Agency (NPA), the top overarching administrative group of the national police force.

The police officials, according to the statement they issued after the gathering, agreed on the illegality of establishing a supervisory bureau inside the interior ministry. They agreed that the measure turns back historical progress in Korea regarding the organization of the police force and is inappropriate. The national police force was removed from the direct control of the central government and made into an independent organization in 1991, following the revision of the Police Officers Act as part of Korea's democratization.

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Presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki criticized the police for holding the meeting, calling it "inappropriate."

"I have 35 years of experience as a government employee, and given the past practices, I think what the police did was inappropriate," he told reporters on Sunday, when asked to comment on the meeting.

Kim said there are three agencies that are more "powerful" than the Cabinet ministries, namely the prosecution, the police agency and the National Tax Service. He went on to say that the two others ― the prosecution and tax service ― are supervised by their respective bureaus in other ministries but the police agency is the only one having no such oversight. His remarks were interpreted as justifying the planned launch of the police bureau within the interior ministry.

Presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki, center, speaks during a meeting with reporters at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap

Meanwhile, the police officials said earlier that they will deliver their statement to Minister Lee or the candidate for the NPA's commissioner, Yoon Hee-keun.

"None of us have agreed to the ministry's forced establishment of the new supervisory bureau," Ryu said following the discussion in Asan. "We agreed to do all we can within legal boundaries to stop the ministry from doing this."

Ryu added that the police officials had gathered despite some concerns over the unusual gathering because they feel deeply troubled that the ministry's plan for the supervisory bureau will "jeopardize the national police's investigative neutrality and fundamental responsibility."

Saturday's meeting received a backlash from some of the NPA's top personnel as they hadn't approved of the meeting. Afterward, they said that they will question those who attended for disobeying the agency's order not to hold the meeting. Prior to the meeting, Yoon, the candidate for NPA commissioner, had ordered the officials not to attend the meeting through Police Human Resource Development Institute head Song Byeong-il.

Afterthe meeting, Ryu was put on probation by Yoon. Ryu said that he doubted that the decision had been ordered single-handedly by Yoon, but that the order had likely come from higher up.

"Yoon on Friday had asked me to meet him over a luncheon this coming Monday and to brief him on how the Saturday meeting had gone," Ryu said. "But on Saturday at about 4 p.m. while the meeting was underway, Yoon suddenly contacted me to inform me that the meeting was illegal and should be canceled. Then on my way back to Ulsan, I was informed by the NPA that I had been put on probation."

He added, "This is clearly the work of Minister Lee, who ordered Yoon to do so, as if saying, 'If you don't obey me, I will kill all of you.' If the supervisory bureau proposal ends up happening, we police officers will not be able to consider the opinions of the public while serving them, but instead will have to follow what the ministry ― who will have the authority over the police ― says."