Half of Police Officers Transferred with 'Prosecution Opinion' Are Civilians... Protecting Their Own?

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The proportion of police officers sent to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment was found to be about half that of the general public.

According to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Kim Young-bae (Democratic Party), a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, from 2017 to last year, 4,764 police officers were booked by the police. Among them, 1,205 were sent to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment. This means that only 25.2% of the police officers booked by the police were referred to the prosecution.

On the other hand, during the same period, the indictment recommendation referral rate for 5,348,848 general citizens who were booked was 57.4% (3,074,963 people), more than twice the rate for police officers. The indictment recommendation referral rate for general public officials who were not police officers was also much higher than that for police officers. During the same period, the indictment recommendation referral rate for 30,525 general public officials booked by the police was 47% (14,375 people), somewhat lower than that of the general public but higher than that of police officers.

Rep. Kim said, "From the perspective of the general public, the indictment recommendation rate for police officers is excessively low, causing unnecessary suspicion," and added, "It is necessary to closely examine whether the police are protecting their own members." Reporter Song Seung-yoon

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