338 Police Division and Team Leaders Rated 'Inappropriate' in Investigation Command Capability Over Past 3 Years

It has been revealed that more than 300 division and team leaders, who serve as heads of frontline investigative departments in the police, were judged as inappropriate in internal evaluations over the past three years.

According to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Jeong Choon-sang's office, the number of individuals judged as inappropriate in the investigative department division and team leader command capability evaluation totaled 338 over the three-year period: 137 in 2024, 124 last year, and 77 this year.

The police have been operating a command capability evaluation for police station division and team leaders since 2023 as one of the measures to improve the quality of investigations.

Evaluations such as appropriate, capacity building needed, and inappropriate are given by comprehensively assessing performance figures, such as case processing duration and the proportion of prolonged cases, along with command capabilities.

By provincial and metropolitan police agency, Seoul recorded the highest number of individuals judged as inappropriate for three consecutive years, with 20 in 2024, 30 last year, and 26 this year.

The police maintain a policy of prioritizing the deployment of experienced investigative personnel as commanders in frontline fields.

They are operating a competency and career-oriented qualification management system categorized into preliminary investigators, general investigators, full-time investigators, and senior investigators.

While the police are pushing to prioritize assigning senior investigators—the highest grade among them—to division and team leader positions, the proportion of senior investigators currently working as division heads stood at only 6 percent (35 individuals), while team heads accounted for 37 percent (218 individuals).

It was also found that there are multiple offices without a single team leader holding senior investigator qualifications.

In Seoul, these included three stations: Jongno, Jungbu, and Yangcheon; in Busan, Seobu and Bukbu; and in Incheon, Nonhyeon and Ganghwa.

Under the jurisdictions of the Gyeongbuk and Gyeongnam provincial police agencies, 16 and 20 offices, respectively, were found to be lacking such senior investigators.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
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