The vacancy at the top of South Korea's National Police Agency, which has lasted roughly 16 months in the wake of the December 3 martial law incident, remains unresolved. Whenever election season arrives, including presidential races, politicians have floated pledges such as "elevating the National Police Agency commissioner general to ministerial rank," using the post as a tool to court the votes of 140,000 police officers. Yet such talk has quietly disappeared after every presidential election, effectively reduced to nothing. Far from any ministerial-level upgrade, the top post — empty for nearly a year and a half — shows no sign of being filled. Inside the police, complaints are growing that repeatedly delayed personnel decisions are sapping the morale of frontline officers. Some diagnose the recent string of misconduct cases among officers as a consequence of the leadership vacuum.
On December 18 last year, the Constitutional Court handed down a ruling removing former Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho, who had ordered the blockade of the National Assembly during the December 3 martial law declaration. For the police, where an acting-chief system had continued for about a year after the commissioner general's duties were suspended following the martial law incident, the appointment of a new chief to settle the unsettled mood inside the organization was sorely needed after Cho's dismissal. The continuation of an acting-leader system — first under former Deputy Commissioner General Lee Ho-young and then under Deputy Commissioner General Yoo Jae-sung — meant a vacancy at the top of the country's policing apparatus had stretched beyond 16 months, an outcome that had been hard to imagine.
Yet the selection of a new commissioner general has been put off again and again. The absence of a commissioner general is not merely a matter of "having no chief." Vitality returns inside the police only when the commissioner general takes the lead in personnel decisions, including assigning senior superintendents — those known as the "flowers of the police" — to head individual police stations. But the regular personnel reshuffle itself has been delayed for an extended period. Promotions to senior superintendent were announced only at the end of last month, and even then, only the names of those promoted have been released. Reassignments of senior superintendents are expected to take place only after the local elections on June 3.
The same situation applies not only to local police station chiefs but also to division-chief-level positions at metropolitan and provincial police agencies. Inside the police, the perception that "a reshuffle is coming soon" is said to be hindering the smooth handling of duties in each department. A police officer working at a frontline station in Seoul said, "The thinking that a reassignment will come any moment now has left everyone feeling unsettled. Both those leaving and those staying are operating with the mindset that 'the person in charge will change soon anyway,' so work isn't getting done properly. The problem is that this situation has been going on for several months. 'This time the reshuffle will really happen' has been repeating for months now, and whether investigations are running properly is another matter."
The recently surfacing problems with the police's investigative capabilities are also seen as a product of the vacancy at the top. The case of independent lawmaker Kim Byung-kee, who is under investigation over allegations including "nomination money," has gone several months without a conclusion. Police said they "plan to forward cases to prosecutors sequentially as they are wrapped up," but there has been no word yet. In the case of Hybe Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, who faces allegations of reaping enormous profits by buying back shares after deceiving existing investors that there were no plans for an initial public offering (IPO), police applied twice to the prosecution for an arrest warrant, only to be rebuffed both times — sparking controversy over investigative competence.
The leadership vacuum also leads to lax discipline. Misconduct continues to surface inside the police, including the situation at Gangnam Police Station, which has resorted to drastic measures such as wholesale replacements of investigation and criminal-affairs heads as well as commanders of police boxes and substations amid a series of investigation-suppression controversies, and the case of the Seoul Seongdong Police Station chief, who was placed on standby duty after being caught using an official electric vehicle — designated for emergency dispatch — for commuting in order to dodge the alternate-day driving rule applied to public-institution vehicles. Recent civilian-life cases that revealed signs of shoddy police investigation — including the November sexual harassment incident in which a former executive at NongHyup Economic Holdings assaulted a female employee, the stalking murder of a woman in her 20s by a man in his 40s in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, and the assault death case of the late director Kim Chang-min — are also seen as not unrelated to the absence of leadership at the top of the National Police Agency.
As various problems erupt due to the commissioner general vacancy, frustration is also building inside the police. While most other government ministries have entered a stabilization phase with their heads appointed, the police — the largest single organization — have effectively been left out in the cold. With the launch of the Major Crimes Investigation Office set for October, the commissioner general should be at the forefront of defending the police's investigative authority, yet complaints are emerging that the agency is being dragged passively along the direction set by the government. Throughout major election cycles such as presidential races, political circles have rolled out various incentives — including promises to treat the commissioner general with ministerial-level standing — to win over the votes of 140,000 officers, but those that have actually been realized can be counted on one hand. That is why grumbling has emerged that failing even to appoint a chief, let alone elevate the post to ministerial rank, effectively amounts to deceiving the police.
Earlier, expectations for the commissioner general selection grew when the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee passed an amendment to the Police Officers Act that would guarantee the terms of police organization heads, including the commissioner general and the head of the National Office of Investigation, beyond the age 60 mandatory retirement. But the Legislation and Judiciary Committee has indefinitely shelved its review, putting the brakes on this as well. Deputy Commissioner General Yoo and National Office of Investigation chief Park Sung-joo, who have been mentioned as strong candidates, were both born in 1966 and reach mandatory retirement age this year. Had the bill excluding the age-based retirement rule passed — to prevent a chief from retiring mid-term during the two-year tenure — the selection process could have moved faster, but that prospect has effectively become uncertain.
A senior-ranking police officer in Seoul said, "Leaving the top police post empty for this long means the government is not paying attention to the police organization. Policies related to investigations are coming out one after another, and a reorganization of the investigative structure is on the horizon — facing all this without a chief is a disadvantage. The commissioner general needs to be appointed promptly so that the organization can stabilize."
