Tag: police

It is surprising they did not have a special team to handle these cases a long time ago:

The team was created to respond more effectively to crimes and security issues involving members of U.S. Forces Korea, Julie Song, an officer at the Pyeongtaek Police Station said by phone July 22. She’s one of two officers assigned to the unit.

They will oversee coordination on a range of incidents, including traffic accidents, allegations of assault and driving under the influence, she said. The unit will also investigate unauthorized drone flights and trespassing cases at U.S. military facilities, Song said, adding that there are no immediate plans to expand the unit.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link, but traffic offenses is what will take up most of their time.

I have to assume alcohol must have been involved in something this tragic happening:

A woman reported missing by her family was found dead in the back of a police vehicle in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, Saturday.

In an unexpected turn of events, local police revealed Sunday that she appeared to have entered the empty, parked car for unknown reasons and was unable to get out for 36 hours amid blistering heat, leading to her death.

The backseat doors of police vehicles cannot be opened from the inside, a feature designed to prevent suspects from escaping. The front seats are also separated from the back by a partition, the Hadong Police Station explained.

Surveillance footage shows the victim entering the unlocked vehicle in the police station’s parking lot through a back door at around 2 a.m. Friday. The car had remained unused until the time of her discovery, at around 2 p.m. Saturday, by a police officer.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The cover up is what caused these senior police officials to be convicted of a crime, not the incompetence that contributed to the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:

A South Korean court on Wednesday convicted three former police officers of destroying internal files and other evidence in an attempted cover-up after a Halloween crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people in the capital, Seoul, in 2022. They were the first convictions over the deaths. The high death toll was largely blamed on official failures in disaster planning and a botched emergency response. More than 20 government and police officials were indicted.

The Seoul Western District Court sentenced Park Seong-min, a former senior intelligence officer at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, to 18 months in prison on charges that he ordered subordinates to erase internal documents after the crush. Those included reports showing how police ignored warnings about possible crowd-related accidents in the nightlife district of Itaewon. Kim Jin-ho, a former intelligence officer at Seoul’s Yongsan district police station, received a suspended one-year sentence on similar charges. Kwang Yeong-seok, a lower-ranking officer at the Yongsan station, received a four-month deferred sentence after being found guilty of destroying files under Kim’s instruction.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but what continues to amaze me about this Itaewon tragedy is that there is a police station right across the street from the Hamilton Hotel where the disaster happened. The police received warnings for hours of the dangerous crowds in the area and nothing was done by the police personnel in the station right across the street.

It looks like the violent protesters in South Korea will have young conscript riot police to assault again:

South Korea announced Wednesday that it sought to revive the recently abolished conscripted police system to strengthen the state’s crime prevention capabilities.

According to the announcement, which came amid the recent surge of crimes seemingly targeting random people, the government plans to add up to 8,000 conscripted police within nine months.

“In order to enhance (the police’s) capability to prevent the occurrence of crimes, the government will proactively move to reintroduce the conscripted police system,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in an announcement at the Government Complex Seoul on Wednesday.

Han said that the measure is for “ensuring safety and protecting the lives of ordinary citizens from ‘senseless crimes.'”

The conscripted police system — in which draftees serve as an alternative to regular compulsory military service — was phased out under a policy direction announced in 2017 by former President Moon Jae-in, due to the shrinking population and the shortage of military-aged men.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This response seems extremely slow considering there is a police station not very far from Itaewon Station:

A police squad first arrived at the scene of the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul nearly 85 minutes after the incident erupted, police data showed Sunday.

A total of five police squads affiliated with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) were mobilized on the day of the crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon district that killed at least 156 people, mostly those in their 20s, according to the data submitted by the SMPA to Rep. Lee Tae-won of the main opposition Democratic Party.

The No. 11 police squad first arrived at the scene at 11:40 p.m. on Oct. 29 under the instruction of Lee Im-Jae, a former chief of the Yongsan Police Station that includes the Itaewon neighborhood. The first call to the police’s 112 emergency hotline was made around 10:15 p.m.

Four other squads arrived at the scene one by one, starting from 11:50 p.m. on Oct. 29 to 1:14 a.m. on Oct. 30, according to the SMPA data.

Lee — temporarily suspended from his post — was also found to have arrived at the Itaewon police substation at 11:05 p.m., some 50 minutes after the crush happened.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Below is some more background information on the police chief protest that continues to be a major issue in Korea right now. Basically these police chiefs are unhappy about reforms to the National Police University and receiving government oversight after reforms from the last administration gave them more investigative powers from prosecutors:

 Interior Minister Lee Sang-min on Tuesday hinted at overhauling the police personnel system that favors graduates of the national police university, amid backlash from front-line police officers over the planned establishment of a police bureau under the ministry.

“It is unfair to automatically begin a career as a lieutenant, just based on graduating from Korea National Police University,” Lee told reporters before giving a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol at the presidential office.

A graduate of the four-year university is awarded the rank of a lieutenant, which is equivalent to the chief of a police precinct or the team leader at a police station. It takes at least 17 years of continuous service for an entry-level officer who did not graduate from the school to reach such rank.  (……..)

About 50 senior superintendents across the nation held a meeting Saturday to protest the plan, despite government warnings to desist, with some 140 others attending online. The minister likened the collective action to a “coup.” 

Police officers taking part in the action have expressed concern the bureau’s oversight would compromise their political neutrality and accountability, while the interior ministry has argued it is necessary, as the police are set to take on more investigative roles from the prosecution.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This incident definitely does not put female police officers in a good light:

The government’s move to increase the number of female police officers has been called into question, after a short video of a female officer struggling to contain a violent drunk went viral. 

Frustrated by her “inability,” a petition was posted on the presidential office’s website, calling for an end to the recruitment of female law enforcement officers.

The Moon Jae-in administration aims to increase the proportion of women on the police force to 15 percent by 2022.

“We don’t need a police officer that requests help from citizens when they are making an arrest,” the petitioner said. “There should not be sexual discrimination, but there is a physical difference. The female officers should take the same physical tests as men or be placed in a safer and more comfortable position.”

The video which was posted Friday, shows one policeman and a policewoman confronted by two drunken men, but as the conversation heats up, one of the drunks slaps the male officer. The man was immediately knocked to the ground by the policeman but the female officer failed to restrain the other man, who even tried to push the male officer off his friend.

The policewoman radioed for back up as soon as the male officer was assaulted, which raised criticisms that the officer was unable to control the situation.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I don’t think this is necessarily a female criticism issue, but really more about putting the most effective officers on a patrol like this. The officer is question was clearly not very effective at handling this situation.