Gender-Neutral Recruitment Leads to Shift in Police Officer Selection Results

Nearly 4 out of 10 successful candidates in the first half of this year's open competitive recruitment for police officers were women.

The National Police Agency announced that among the 2,941 final successful candidates for the first half of 2026, 1,112 were women, accounting for 37.8% of the total.

Men accounted for 1,829, or 62.2%.

There were 29,972 total applicants, with men making up 62.9% and women 37.1%, which the police explained showed little difference from the gender ratio of the final successful candidates.

This exam was the first in the history of open police recruitment to fully implement a "gender-neutral selection method," which selects candidates without separating them by gender.

Previously, police recruitment had set separate quotas for men and women, with the female selection rate typically hovering around 20%.

However, the results of this first integrated selection show that the proportion of female successful candidates has nearly doubled compared to the past.

Yoo Jae-sung, Acting Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency, explained the cause of this phenomenon during a regular press briefing today (June 22), stating, "There was an aspect where competition was more intense because the number of female recruits was limited."

In fact, over the past three years when recruitment was separated by gender, the competition rate for women was up to 2.5 times higher than that for men.

Regarding the outlook for an increase in female police officers, Acting Commissioner General Yoo said, "The current proportion of women among the entire police force is 16.7%," adding, "It is expected to rise slightly in the future."

The pass rate for the circular physical fitness test, which drew significant attention, was 88.6% for men and 42.5% for women, with an overall pass rate of 63.9%.

In response to concerns that an increase in female successful candidates might limit the ability to exercise physical force in the field, such as subduing suspects, the National Police Agency stated, "We will continuously monitor the situation to ensure there are no public concerns," while adding, "If such concerns become reality or serious problems arise, we will carefully review institutional improvements."

Reported by Lee Hyun-young | Video by Lee Eui-sun | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.