Questions have been raised about alleged padding of performance results after it emerged that the Gumi Police Station in North Gyeongsang split a single theft case into dozens of cases and sent them to prosecutors. Police said it was a simple mistake by the officer in charge.
According to The Chosun Ilbo on the 26th, in March a worker in his 40s stole about 700,000 won worth of goods in 51 instances at a supermarket in Gumi.
The Gumi Police Station, which investigated the case, split it into 51 separate theft cases rather than treating it as one and referred them to the Gimcheon branch of the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office. Prosecutors later canceled the filing. Even when a police investigation is insufficient, prosecutors typically request a supplementary investigation; it is rare to cancel a referral.
Some raised suspicions that police inflated the number of cases to boost performance metrics. However, the Gumi Police Station drew a line in a phone call with a domestic media outlet, saying it was merely a simple mistake by the officer in charge and not intentional padding of results.
According to police, under internal guidelines revised in 2016, repeated offenses occurring at the same location must be consolidated into a single case based on the first incident and sent to prosecutors.