Police Launch Probe Into Senior Official Over Alleged Retaliatory Personnel Action

Police have launched an internal inspection into a senior police official over allegations that he took retaliatory personnel action against a frontline investigation team leader without justifiable grounds.

According to SBS reporting, the Inspection Division of the Korean National Police Agency recently initiated a formal investigation into Senior Superintendent A.

Senior Superintendent A is suspected of taking unfair personnel action against Inspector B, a head of an investigation team under his command, after taking office as the chief of a police station in the capital area in October of last year.

The core of the allegation is that Senior Superintendent A introduced a new meal ticket system for employees to address chronic deficits in the police station cafeteria, and took retaliatory personnel action last February after Inspector B expressed that he did not wish to purchase the new meal tickets.

According to the findings, during a meeting discussing personnel matters at the time, Senior Superintendent A mentioned Inspector B and instructed, "I cannot work with someone who rebels against me" and "Tell him to choose between the intoxicated person protection center and a patrol division."

Although some senior officers tried to dissuade him by saying, "He has performance records, experience, and drive, so let's give him a chance to work even as a team member," Senior Superintendent A reportedly dismissed it, saying, "I don't want to work with him."

In fact, Inspector B's assignment was changed to a patrol division team member right after the meeting.

Inspector B is known to have taken a leave of absence immediately.

Having received an internal whistleblowing report containing these details last August, the National Police Agency detected suspicious circumstances in the personnel action process concerning Inspector B and immediately launched an inspection.

The National Police Agency is accelerating efforts to uncover the truth, recently summoning Inspector B as a reference witness for questioning.

An official from the National Police Agency stated, "We view the matter as serious and are thoroughly examining the circumstances before and after."

Senior Superintendent A has been transferred to serve as the Investigation Review Coordinator at the National Office of Investigation, and reported to work for his first day today (September 29).

In a phone call with SBS, Senior Superintendent A explained that his remarks at the time were susceptible to misunderstanding, but repeatedly clarified, "As an authority with personnel rights, it was merely a judgment based on Inspector B's usual work attitude and public reputation, and there was no arbitrary abuse of power, workplace bullying, or violation of regulations."

(File Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.