[Anchor]
As we previously reported, a senior police officer who has worked in the South Gyeongsang Province region for over 30 years is facing allegations of sexually harassing junior female police officers and inappropriately meddling in personnel affairs. The National Police Agency's inspection team is currently looking into the entire promotion review process involving this officer. The officer in question submitted his resignation over the weekend, but it has not been processed.
Morning Zoom-In, reporter Bae Seong-jae.
[Reporter]
The individuals recently subjected to face-to-face local questioning by the National Police Agency inspection team, which has launched a high-intensity investigation into Superintendent A—commonly referred to as the 'Geoje King'—are personnel officers from regional police agencies in nearby areas including South Gyeongsang Province and Ulsan.
Through investigations into these individuals, the inspection team is verifying all promotion review processes and results that have taken place over the years at locations such as the Geoje Police Station, where Superintendent A has worked.
It is understood that the inspection team has specifically captured circumstances suggesting that Superintendent A effectively seized control of the Promotion Review Committee, which determines successful candidates for inspector and senior inspector positions in key divisions such as the investigative and intelligence divisions at the Geoje Police Station.
[Local Police Official B: It was a rigged game. They made sure the reviews were conducted only with staff members desired by 000.]
In the police force, promotions for the rank of senior superintendent and below are typically handled by the ordinary promotion review committee at frontline stations.
Candidates are selected within a pool of up to five times the quota for promotion, and once the committee reaches a conclusion, it goes through the police station chief's approval before being finalized by the provincial police agency.
Usually, a superintendent serving as a division head acts as the chair of the review committee. However, a local police official lamented that "most of the review committee members had close ties with the 'Geoje King'," and that "they would simply say, 'Person A and Person B will be promoted just as the "Geoje King" wants,' and discussion would end right there."
The inspection team is also focusing on intelligence that large sums of money exchanged hands ahead of promotion reviews, as well as suspicions that Superintendent A exerted influence even over personnel appointments for his superiors, such as senior superintendents, through the Police Development Committee, a local civilian cooperative body.
[Local Police Official C: He picks the chief he wants through the members of the Police Development Committee. Once (the chief) arrives, because he owes a debt to him for the personnel appointment, he cannot do anything about the head of the intelligence division.]
Superintendent A submitted his resignation to his parent organization, the South Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency, through his wife over the weekend, but the National Police Agency is reportedly taking the stance that a high-intensity inspection takes priority over processing the resignation.
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