As the Board of Audit and Inspection audited the Korean National Police Agency in the fifth year of the local police system, it found that the system's intended goals of dispersing police power and improving local public safety services had yielded little effect. After the adjustment of investigative authority, it also found overall management gaps, including poor management of supplemental investigations, a protection gap for stalking victims, and duty violations.
According to the Board of Audit and Inspection on the 10th, a review of the police command and investigation system after the full implementation of the local police system in 2021 and the adjustment of investigative authority between the prosecution and the police found that the Local Police Commission (Jakyungwi) was operating without a separate organization or budget, making it difficult to exercise substantive authority. Although the system is local police on paper, in the field a unified command structure centered on the Korean National Police Agency was still being maintained.
Forty percent of the Commissioners of the Jakyungwi are former police officers, and most of the secretariat staff were seconded from the Korean National Police Agency. Efforts such as discovering region-tailored public safety services were sluggish. The Board of Audit and Inspection notified the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Korean National Police Agency to prepare improvement measures so that the local police system can perform its proper function.
Even after the adjustment of investigative authority, management of cases requiring supplemental investigation or requesting reinvestigation was not properly carried out. As of last year, cases of supplemental and reinvestigation accounted for 8.5% of the total, and the overall investigation processing period was estimated to average 140.9 days. The police did not manage these separately, making it impossible to grasp the actual investigation duration. The Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out that the scope of analysis needed for setting investigation policy should be expanded and the effectiveness of checks on cases closed at the first stage should be strengthened.
The protection system for stalking victims also did not function properly. A total of 385 stalking-related 112 calls were misclassified as "consultation inquiries," among others, and protection measures for victims were not implemented, with four of these cases resulting in actual secondary harm. There were also cases where additional harm occurred because patrols tailored to the time and place requested by the victim were not carried out. The Board of Audit and Inspection notified the Korean National Police Agency to introduce an automatic keyword search function for stalking-related terms and to improve the effectiveness of tailored patrols.
Duty violations were also uncovered, such as leaving the workplace without permission to attend law school classes or using a leave of absence for purposes other than intended. There were also cases confirmed in which personal information of a former partner or a celebrity was accessed privately through the internal system. The Board of Audit and Inspection called for strengthening duty management and oversight of information systems, and demanded disciplinary and cautionary measures for those involved.