South Korea's police will assign about 2,100 additional officers to investigative units in the second half of this year in response to an overhaul of the criminal justice system. But only a small portion will be genuine additions to the force, with most coming from reassigning existing personnel including riot squads, a shift expected to increase the workload at non-investigative units.
Kim Jong-cheol, acting commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, said at a regular press briefing at the agency's headquarters in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 14th that roughly 2,100 investigators would be added in this round of personnel changes for the second half. "If necessary, we plan to boldly carry out further increases as well," Kim said.
Kim said the annual caseload per investigator fell to 103 cases after staffing reinforcements in the first half, from 134.8 cases last year. "If we add about 2,100 more in this round of personnel changes, we expect the caseload per investigator to stabilize at around 70 to 80 cases," Kim said.
The problem is that a substantial share does not represent new hiring. "Of the 2,100 positions being filled in the second half, genuine additions are an extremely small portion," Kim said. "The rest will be handled by reassigning current personnel, including riot squads."
Kim added that units outside investigations will have seven to eight officers handling work previously done by 10, and said the agency is reviewing measures to minimize disruption, including cutting unnecessary tasks for officers and introducing artificial intelligence for simple and repetitive work.
The police plan to continue consultations with related ministries to secure a separate net increase in personnel. "We are discussing with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety how many positions to add on a net basis, how many personnel to reassign, and whether the staffing increase can be completed within this year," Kim said.
On police reform, the agency said it would actively reflect views from the field. Regarding the role of a police reform unit tasked with public participation and field engagement, Kim said, "We see it serving as a channel that actively cooperates and communicates with external bodies while conveying the diverse voices from the field to them." The agency also plans to identify improvement tasks related to internal working methods, organizational culture and practices.
