'Nominal Only' Police Pre-Information Disclosure System

Seoul Police Agency Investigates 31 Police Stations
Only 4 Basic Public Safety Administration Statuses Disclosed
Information Disclosure Mostly from 3-4 Years Ago

A pre-information disclosure page on the website of a police station in Seoul. No search results are displayed.

[Asia Economy Reporters Donghoon Jeong, Jeongyun Lee] The police's pre-information disclosure system is being operated ineffectively. The pre-information disclosure system is designed to proactively provide necessary information to the public before they request information disclosure. It has been confirmed that most police stations in Seoul either do not disclose information at all or have not posted related content since 2016.

On the 14th, Asia Economy checked 31 police stations under the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and found that although they promised to disclose the "Police Station Public Security Administration Status," which includes jurisdiction area, population per police officer, and total population, on their websites at the beginning of each year, only four stations?Seocho Police Station, Mapo Police Station, Yeongdeungpo Police Station, and Gangdong Police Station?kept this promise. Most frontline stations did not update the information with new content according to the disclosure schedule. When clicking the relevant section on Seongbuk Police Station's website, the message "No results found" appeared, and for Geumcheon, Gangbuk, and Jungnang Police Stations, the posted year remained at 2016.

The police also pledged to disclose the "Number of Assemblies and Demonstrations by Category" once a year in March, but this was also neglected. On Dongjak Police Station's website, only data from 2015 posted in July 2016 was found, and Yangcheon Police Station has not posted new information since uploading the "2016 Yangcheon Police Station Assembly and Demonstration Status by Category" in March 2017. Additionally, several items such as the "Firearms and Explosives Possession Permit Status," disclosed semiannually, and the "Volunteer Crime Prevention Unit Status," posted once a year, were not disclosed proactively and were omitted.

Not only is the disclosure timing not observed, but the entities responsible for pre-information disclosure vary. For example, regarding the "Status of Occurrence and Arrests of the Five Major Crimes," some police stations like Gangnam and Seongdong posted the occurrence status within their jurisdiction, while many others such as Seodaemun and Gangseo Police Stations linked their pages to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's disclosure. The data posted by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency did not include statistics by police station and was only disclosed up to 2018. Furthermore, most police stations direct users to the National Police Agency's data when clicking on cybercrime occurrence and arrest numbers or traffic accident statistics.

The current "Act on Disclosure of Information by Public Agencies (Information Disclosure Act)" stipulates the pre-disclosure of information. If the information falls under any of the following: △ information on policies that significantly affect citizens' lives △ information on large-scale projects involving public works or budgets implemented as national policies △ information necessary for administrative oversight such as budget execution details and project evaluation results △ or other information designated by the head of a public agency, the specific scope, frequency, timing, and methods must be predetermined and disclosed through information and communication networks.

However, police officers responsible for this task express difficulties in pre-information disclosure. A frontline police station official in Seoul said, "It is challenging to grasp the numerous crime and public security statuses in the jurisdiction due to manpower management," adding, "It is true that the system has become ineffective due to low public interest." Professor Geonsoo Lee of the Department of Police Science at Baekseok University explained, "Pre-information disclosure guarantees the public's right to know and provides opportunities for residents to participate in local administration. Not doing it properly is a trend that goes against autonomous administration," and emphasized, "Management and supervision, as well as evaluations of information disclosure, should be conducted to raise awareness of the importance of pre-information disclosure."

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