More than 10% of Police Officers Fail Shooting Tests... "Concerns Over Rising Failure Rates"

Park Wan-joo, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] It has been revealed that the failure rate of police officers in shooting tests exceeds 10% annually.

According to the National Assembly inspection data submitted by the National Police Agency to Park Wan-joo, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, since 2018, the number of grade 5 shooters scoring below 60 points has accounted for more than 10% of all participants.

By year, the number of grade 5 shooters was 11,997 (10.24%) in 2018, 12,999 (10.76%) in 2019, and 13,467 (11.24%) in the first half of 2020, showing an increasing trend in both number and proportion each year.

As of the first half of 2020, the proportion of grade 5 shooters by regional police agency was as follows: Police University 17.22% (26 people), Jeonbuk 16.78% (790 people), Jeonnam 14.02% (693 people), Gwangju 13.64% (472 people), and Ulsan 13.60% (358 people). By number of people, the order was Seoul 3,184 (11.4%), Gyeonggi Nambu 1,959 (10.89%), Busan 1,304 (11.61%), Jeonbuk 790 (16.78%), and Jeonnam 693 (14.02%).

The police conduct two regular shooting tests annually, in the first and second halves of the year. During these tests, the total score is calculated by combining 100 points for precision shooting and 200 points for rapid shooting, then converted to a 100-point scale. The average score of the first and second half tests determines the grade, ranging from grade 1 (90 points or above) to grade 5 (below 60 points). If an officer receives grade 5 consecutively in both halves, they are classified as a training candidate and must undergo one day of training at the regional education center of the local police agency.

From 2016 to last year, the number of officers who received consecutive grade 5 scores in the first and second half regular shooting tests and underwent training was 1,280 in 2016, 1,036 in 2017, 1,162 in 2018, and 1,698 in 2019, showing an increasing trend since 2017. If there is no grade improvement after the one-day training, the officer must attend a five-day shooting training course at the Police Human Resources Development Institute. On the other hand, the number of excellent shooters scoring 90 points or above has been decreasing annually: 22,639 in 2016, 16,851 in 2017, 15,461 in 2018, and 15,107 in 2019.

Meanwhile, since 2015, there have been 20 firearm-related accidents involving the police, mostly confirmed to be accidental discharges of blanks caused by carelessness.

Park Wan-joo stated, "The use of firearms by the police is in urgent situations where life threats occur, so accuracy is extremely important. To prevent damage caused by accidental discharges, shooting accuracy is crucial. The recent decrease in excellent shooters and increase in grade 5 failures is a concerning situation, and thorough countermeasures must be prepared regularly."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.