Police Organization Of South Korea

The Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), also known as the Korean National Police (KNP), is
one of a few police organizations in South Korea and is run under the Ministry of Government
Administration and Home Affairs.[2] As a national police force it provides all policing services
throughout the country.[2]The National Park Services also have their own police organizations, as
does the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation to police the railroad system.

History of Policing in South Korea

National Police Agency

During the Japanese Occupation Period. (1910 - 1945) Japan

established the Police Administration Bureau (1910) under the
Governnor-general in Choson. This had forced discontinuation of
the Korean police system and caused the people's hatred and
mistrust about the police. With the end of World War II, Korea
restored its independence on August 15, 1945. However, Korea was
suffering from disorder and chaos without any countermeasure or
systematic organization to ensure public peace and order. On 17
August 1945 an autonomy organization was established by the
Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of the Republic of Korea (Chairman: Yeo Woonyoung)
This contributed to the public peace and order until the US Army was stationed in Korea on
September 9. Various organizations formed, such as the Public Peace Corps., Student
Organizations, Youth Organizations, Guards Corps., Self-Defence Organization, and Choson Student
Group.

The Police Administration Office was established under the U.S. Miliatary Government on October
21, 1945, with Police Administration Departments in each province. On 01 January 1946 the Police
Administration Bureau was elevated to the Police Administration Department by Military Government
Order No.23104 [Subject of Police Administration Bureau and Police Administration Department] .
Subsequently the Provincial Police Departments were reorganized to District Police Bureaus (9
districts nationwide).

The new government that had declared the establishment of the Republic of Korea on August 15,
1948, took over administrative power from U.S. Military Government on September 13. However, the
policy system did not remain as a department but was downgraded as an office within the Ministry of
Home Affairs. The July 17, 1948 Law of Government Organizations Article 15 (Korean Law No. 1)
stated that the Minister of Home Affairs shall govern the affairs on local administration, election,
security, fire fighting, road, bridge, rivers, water service, construction and statistics and supervise the
local organization for public peace and order to provide the basis of subordination to the Ministry of
Home Affairs. On 03 September 1948 the Police Administration Department became subordinate to
the Security Bureau in the Ministry of Home Affairs; local the police headquaters became subordinate
to provincial Governors.
As the National Assembly was dismissed by emergency martial law, on 17 October 1972 the
government suddenly decided upon the so called "October Revitalization"style of Korean democracy.
In 1974, the government started to study the police system to revive the proper functionality of the
police. The Security Bureau was upgraded to the Security Headquarters and the Head of the Security
Bureau was promoted to chief of Security Headquarter at the vice-minister level. The Security Bureau
of the Ministry of Home Affairs was reorganized on 24 December 1974 into the Security Headquarters
with three departments. The Personnel Education Department was established within the Department
NO.1 and the Computer Center was established within Department NO.3. In the 1990s the Police
searched for the political neutralization of the police. The efforts for this neutralization, such as the
introduction of a bill based on the committee type that organized the national police committee
belonging to the Prime Minister on March, 1989, and enlisted the police agency under the banner of
the committee, has been continued. On May 31, 1991, the Police Law was established and
promulgated. On July 31, 1991, the Police Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs was
inaugurated. The matter for the main policy about personnel management, budget, equipment,
communications etc. and the development of police affairs, the matter for the management and
improvement of police related to safeguard the human rights, the matter for the cooperation of affairs
from the other national organization except police affairs, and the matter that is presented to a
committee by recognition of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and NPA Commissoner General are
deliberated and decided.

On 01 August 1991 the NPA was inaugurated as an independent government organization which is
not a subordinate organization of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was reorganized to one Deputy
Commissoner General, nine major staffs, and 41 sections, with reenforced management through the
planning, readjustment and control. The NPA was reorganized into large departments and large
sections by considering specialization and efficiency.

The police box is a first-line organization of the police and served as a base for anti-crime activities
for maintaining the security of an area in consideration of the population, area, administrative district,
frequency of crime. The total number of nationwide police boxes is 3,422, manned by 38,000
policeman; 43% of the entire police force work day and night in protecting the population from crime.

The NPA performs various surveillance activities to guard against the appearance of anarchistic
ideology struggle; reappearance of anti-democratic and anti-government violence. It also monitors
increased labor circle meetings and demonstrations due to the IMF impact. Activities include watching
various events such as ceremonial meetings, athletic events, and guarding the people visiting
hometowns or parent's graves. The NPA utilizes its own order keeping guardians as well as
guardians from security guard service company, allocating a minimum number of policemen when
keeping order is required. It is also responsible for checking the protection status of important
facilities and paying guidance visits to protect them from various dangerous activities. The chief of the
facility takes primary responsibility for protection; the police takes responsibility for guidance and
supervision. Protection of candidate activities include pre-investigate and present disrupting activities
to the election speech sites, voting place and ballot counting locations.
 National Police Agency Structure

The Korean National Police Agency system consists of, from the top: one National Police
Headquarters located in Seoul; 5 special task police agencies, including Marine Police; 13
provincial police headquarters; 220 police stations; and 3,389 police branch offices across the
country. The Korean Police has its own chain of command independent of the Army. There are no
local municipal police systems or state police departments like those in many western nations.
 Vision & Goals
Vision and Goal of the people’s National Police Agency

Securing basic public safety for people’s relief

Reinforcement of crime risk factors management

- Eradicating personal and physical fear factors of the people in advance
- reestablishing the role of police as the “consultant of crime prevention and safety”
- Activating participatory public safety to construct a dense social safety network.

Enhancing on-site confrontational ability such as 112 in cases of crime and accidents.
- Enhancing all-out correspondences to 112 reports, securing efficiency of on-site actions
- Establishing a thorough order and response system in case of serious crimes.
- Conducting cutting-edge scientific investigations at the crime or accident scenes.

Taking stern measures against daily adjacent crimes such as 4 social evils and violent
offenses.
- Strengthening the integrity of eradication measures against the 4 social evils
- Providing a close-up investigation services that corresponds to people’s want

Establishing a law-abiding way of life that sets the society upright

Settling a law-abiding culture of public demonstration by constant and fair legal

execution.
- Establishing legal government orders by managing public demonstrations that corresponds to
people’s want
- Operating thorough investigations on illegal violent demonstrators and de facto power behind
them
- Expanding and securing legal and institutional foundations to reinforce on-site legal
executions

Securing safety and communication by establishing traffic order

- Establishing a developed traffic order by constant and continuous legal executions
- Organizing traffic infrastructure for safety of the people
- Operating customized traffic policies to enhance people’s convenience
Securing social stability by reinforcing confrontational ability to terrors and disasters
- Reinforcing confrontational ability to emergencies such as terrors and disasters
- Eradicating foreigner-related and international crimes by conducting global public safety
activities.
- Securing public safety by establishing a formidable national security set-up

Eradicating irregularities of society that infiltrates the life of the public

- Severly punishing the offenses against keeping the economic orders intact
- Realizing a transparent society by eradicating corruption
- Expelling unethical illegal disorders such as drugs, gambling, prostitution and etc
 Settling a work-focused organization culture by meticulous organizational innovation

Operating innovation of human resources and education policies seamlessly

- Settling a work-focused human resources system
- Rearing creative individuals by innovating educational system

Enhancing professionality by improving capability and qualification

- Establishing a developed traffic order by constant and continuous legal executions
- Organizing traffic infrastructure for safety of the people
- Operating customized traffic policies to enhance people’s convenience

Securing social stability by reinforcing confrontational ability to terrors and disasters

- Training public safety professionals and strengthening research and development potentials
- improving public satisfaction by setting a friendly and clean police image

Eradicating irregularities of society that infiltrates the life of the public

- Continuous expansion and securing of public safety infrastructures such as workforce,
budget and equipments.

Promoting honor and pride of police officers

Vision:
 Safety and order at the highest level
 Ensuring people’s safety:
 Working with people to keep communities safe;
 Protecting women, children and minorities.
 Upholding justice for all levels of society:
 Tackling corruption;
 Eliminating crime and public disorder.

Mandate
 Crime prevention, suppression and investigation;
 Safeguarding national security;
 Safeguarding public security, law and order;
 International cooperation with governments and international organizations;
 Close protection services and national security operations;
 Protection of people and property;
 Traffic control and road security;
 Collection, preparation and distribution of information on public order.

Structure
 Headed by a Commissioner General and one Deputy Commissioner General;
 17 regional police agencies;
 five specialised law enforcement agencies;
 252 police stations;
 nearly 2,000 substations;
 140,000 men and women.
 RANKS OF KOREAN POLICE

 Commissioner General (치안총감, 治安總監): at most one may be appointed at a time.

 Chief Superintendent General (치안정감, 治安正監): at most five may be appointed at a time.
 Senior Superintendent General (치안감, 治安監)
 Superintendent General (경무관, 警務官)
 Senior Superintendent (총경, 總警)
 Superintendent (경정, 警正)
 Senior Inspector (경감, 警監)
 Inspector (경위, 警衛)
 Assistant Inspector (경사, 警査)
 Senior Police Officer (경장, 警長)
 Police Officer (순경, 巡警)
- Newly commissioned officers are appointed as Policeman Assistant (순경시보,
巡警試補) for a two-year probationary period. The uniform and insignia of an assistant
is identical to those of a Policeman.
 Auxiliary Policeman (의경, 義警)
 Sergeant Constable (수경, 首警)

 Corporal Constable (상경, 上警)

 Private Constable First Class (일경, 一警)

 Private Constable (이경, 二警)

 Recruitment or Training For Korean Police

Recruitment and training were done through the Central Police Academy, the National Police College,
and the Police Consolidated Training School. The Central Police Academy was established in 1987. It had a
maximum capacity of 35,000 recruits and was capable of simultaneously offering a six-week training course for
police recruits, a two-week training course for draftees of the Combat Police, and a variety of basic specialized
training courses for junior police. Officials planned to recruit about 10,000 new police officers a year from 1989
to 1991 to alleviate the personnel shortage, although their ability to maintain the quality of the force, given the
low starting pay, was questioned. Only 12 percent of police applicants were university graduates in 1989.
Screening unsuitable recruits was problematic because neither psychiatric nor polygraph assessments were
administered. (In 1982, for example, an unstable police officer killed fifty- four people in one night following a
domestic dispute.)

By 1989 the National Police College had graduated some 500 officers since its first class graduated in
1985. Each college class had about 120 police cadets, divided between law and public administration
specializations. The National Police College began admitting women in 1989; five women were admitted each
year. The cadets shared a collective life for four years at the college. The goal was to establish a career officers
corps similar to those created by the military academies.

The Police Consolidated Training School provided advanced studies, basic training for junior police
staff, and special practical training courses for security and investigative officers from the counterespionage
echelons of police agencies. It also trained Maritime Police instructors, key command personnel for the Combat
Police force, and foreign-language staff members.

Firearms/Facilities/Equipment

Revolvers and carbines were the customary weapons; billy clubs were carried by patrol officers. The gradual
replacement of carbines by rifles began in 1981. In 1989 the KNP reemphasized the planned replacement of
carbines with M-16 rifles. Approximately 4,300 M-16s were to be supplied to police boxes and stations in 1989;
by 1999 a total of 110,000 M-16s were scheduled to be distributed. Transportation was by motorcycle, bicycle,
jeep, truck, and squad car.

The KNP's special weapons and tactics squad was known as Force 868. Organized in 1982, its members were
trained in martial arts and counterterrorist tactics. It received significant support and advice from United States
and West European counterterrorist task forces preceding the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was well supplied with
the more specialized equipment needed for combating terrorism.