Senior Police Official Under Investigation for Alleged Retaliatory Personnel Action Over Cafeteria Meal Tickets

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An internal investigation is underway following allegations that a police chief took retaliatory personnel action against a subordinate investigation team leader. The dispute reportedly stemmed from the failure to purchase new meal tickets for the police station cafeteria.

Reporter An Huijae has the details.

[Reporter]

This is the cafeteria of a police station in the capital area.

The cafeteria, designated for employees, had been suffering from chronic deficits when Senior Superintendent Kim, who took office as the police chief last year, pushed for the introduction of new meal tickets.

The plan was to scrap existing meal tickets and introduce an expiration date to boost usage rates.

A fixed amount was set to be deducted from monthly salaries, but problems arose during the process of obtaining consent from employees.

Complaints were raised questioning whether employees had to buy them even if they had hundreds of existing meal tickets left or rarely used the cafeteria due to fieldwork and other reasons.

Inspector A, an investigation team leader who usually did not use the cafeteria, also expressed that he did not need them. Although the responsible department explained that it could be left to individual preference, an unexpected incident occurred shortly afterward.

During a personnel committee meeting early this year, Senior Superintendent Kim brought up Inspector A and instructed, "I cannot work with someone who rebels against the chief," and "Tell him to choose either the intoxicated persons protection center or a district unit."

Another official tried to dissuade him by suggesting, "Let's give him a chance to work even as a team member," but it was to no avail, and Inspector A, who was reassigned to a district unit, immediately took a leave of absence.

A police official stated that there was a prevailing atmosphere internally at the time that it was a "retaliatory personnel action."

An internal whistleblower report was filed through the e-People portal last month, and the Korean National Police Agency recently launched an inspection.

An official from the National Police Agency stated, "Suspicious circumstances were detected across the overall personnel measures," adding, "We plan to investigate Senior Superintendent Kim directly."

Senior Superintendent Kim, who recently transferred to the National Police Agency, explained that while his remarks at the time may have been open to misunderstanding, "It was a comprehensive judgment made as an authority on personnel management, taking into account Inspector A's usual attitude. There was no abuse of power, violation of regulations, or arbitrary personnel administration."

(Camera & Video Editing: Lee Sang-hak, Park Ji-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.