With the annual number of police officer suicides exceeding 20, the Korean National Police Agency decided to establish a management system at the organizational level.
The Korean National Police Agency announced on the 20th that it has prepared and will implement a "2026 comprehensive plan to prevent colleague suicides among police."
From 2020 to 2024, an average of 23 police officers a year died by suicide. The number of suicides last year was 25, and this year it is 16 as of this month. Over the past five years, the suicide rate among police officers was 17.7 per 100,000 people, about 2.1 times that of public officials outside the police (8.6). This is attributed to the nature of the work, which repeatedly exposes them to violent crimes and accident and disaster scenes.
In response, the Korean National Police Agency decided to shift to a system that detects risk signals first rather than waiting for individuals to develop problems and ask for help.
First, it will conduct comprehensive mental health checkups for all police officers. It will replace the existing "police officer job aptitude test" with a "comprehensive mental health checkup for police officers" from a health and welfare perspective and shorten the testing cycle from five years to two. If the test results classify someone as high risk or needing caution, a counselor will contact the person directly for counseling and, if necessary, connect them to hospital treatment. Regular psychological counseling, currently limited to some high-workload units, will also be expanded to all employees.
It also plans, in the long term, to have every police officer receive counseling at least once a year and, to that end, to establish a "one counselor per police station" system. After pilot mandatory counseling for all employees at two police stations and three local precincts this year, it plans to expand it to 60 police units in 2027.
Each police unit will also form a "Police Life Keeper Council" to monitor the condition of employees who have experienced shocking incidents, suffered physical or mental injuries on duty, or are returning after long sick leave or a leave of absence, and to decide on necessary support. It will not stop at merely recommending counseling or treatment, but will also review sick leave or a leave of absence, adjustments to working hours, and changes in duties or positions.
The scope of those eligible for emergency psychological support will also be expanded from cases such as witnessing death or facing a direct threat to life to include colleague suicides and disasters and social catastrophes. When a shocking incident occurs, it will be managed according to a three-step procedure from early intervention to psychological counseling and evaluation to follow-up support, and, if necessary, a recovery program will be conducted for the entire team or department that experienced the same incident.
It will also lower the threshold for receiving mental health treatment. Until now, one had to first receive counseling at the Mind Companion Center to get support for psychiatric treatment expense, but going forward, expense will be covered even if treatment is received directly at a partner hospital without prior counseling.
It also decided to improve the process of recognizing a line-of-duty death after a suicide occurs. A police officer dedicated to the bereaved family will be designated to assist with funeral and line-of-duty application procedures, and materials to prove the job-relatedness—such as work stress and heavy workloads, workplace bullying, and aftereffects of duty-related injuries—will be collected from the outset. A "psychological autopsy," which examines psychological and behavioral changes before death through statements and records from family members and colleagues, will also be introduced to analyze causes and reflect them in future prevention measures.
Acting Commissioner Yoo Jae-seong of the Korean National Police Agency said in a letter, "We will not leave a colleague's pain to the individual," and "When help is needed, the organization will reach out first, and we will stay with our colleague until they receive treatment, recover, and return to the workplace in good health."