Acting Commissioner General Kim Jong-chul said, "Following the first half of this year, we plan to add about 2,100 investigative personnel in the second half through personnel moves."
At his first regular press briefing on the 14th, Acting Commissioner General Kim said, "As the implementation of the amended Criminal Procedure Act fundamentally changes the investigative system, we are supplementing measures to secure the police's investigative expertise, accountability, and fairness," and stated accordingly.
Acting Commissioner General Kim predicted that adding investigative personnel would reduce the number of cases each investigator has to handle. He said that in the first half of this year, with 1,907 additional hires, the annual number of cases handled per investigator fell from 133.8 at the end of last year to 103.
Acting Commissioner General Kim said, "If we further reinforce investigative personnel through second-half appointments, we expect the annual number of cases handled per investigator to drop to 70–80."
However, there are concerns that public safety could be weakened in the process of adjusting and redeploying personnel by duty as the police secure investigative staff. Acting Commissioner General Kim also said, "With several rounds of redeployment, I personally wonder if we are wringing a dry towel," but explained that, since the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act, public expectations for the police's investigative capabilities and responsibility have risen significantly, making an increase in investigative personnel unavoidable.
Acting Commissioner General Kim said he would also push for an overall increase in headcount in consultation with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and others. He said, "There has been talk of increasing by around 4,000, but nothing has been finalized yet," adding, "We will move quickly to prepare for increasing personnel."
Acting Commissioner General Kim said he would also reduce unnecessary practices to ease on-site workloads. He said, "I think we need to boldly cut routinized tasks and unnecessary work and introduce artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the burden on frontline officers," adding, "We are considering various options such as outsourcing simple tasks or opening them to the private sector so the police can focus on responsibilities they must carry."