'Former Police Officer' Kwon Eun-hee: "Female Police Dance Theory? It's Just Because of Female Officers... The Problem Is the Monopoly of Police University Graduates"

"Physical Strength Not the Most Critical Factor in Field Response... Need for Police Organization Improvement"
Also Points Out Lack of Authority and Sense of Mission Among Field Police Officers

Kwon Eun-hee, floor leader of the People Party, is speaking at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul on September 6.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] Regarding the recent debate over the "ineffectiveness of female police officers" sparked by the Incheon inter-floor noise stabbing incident, Kwon Eun-hee, floor leader of the People’s Party and a former police officer, stated, "The argument about the ineffectiveness of female police officers is merely blaming them. This stems from a failure to accurately identify the problems and solutions related to the inadequate response."

On the afternoon of the 22nd, Kwon appeared on YTN Radio's "Lee Dong-hyung's News Face-off" and was asked, "What is your view on the police officers who left the scene despite having a victim in mortal danger right in front of them?" She replied, "Not only should the chief of Incheon Nonhyeon Police Station be suspended, but even the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency should be considered for suspension. This was a very poor on-site response," adding, "I believe that the government, which led police reform, and the ruling party have no words to say even if they had ten mouths."

Regarding the criticism of female police officers, she said, "I think that is simply blaming them," and added, "The reason is that there is no clear identification of what exactly to be angry about in terms of the inadequate response and how to find improvement measures."

Kwon argued that on-site police officers should be given authority and a sense of mission. She stated, "The most important thing in 112 reporting and response is that the on-site police officers respond responsibly with their own sense of mission and authority. However, in reality, on-site officers have virtually no authority or sense of mission," and criticized, "On the contrary, morale is at rock bottom, and they feel only helplessness regarding their authority."

She further pointed out that the privileged class within the police monopolizes all necessary authority and sense of mission. Kwon explained, "Among the 120,000 police officers, less than 3% are graduates of the Korean National Police University, yet they hold more than 60% of senior positions at the rank of superintendent or higher. This means that all the authority, judgment, and rewards necessary for the police are completely controlled by less than 3% of police university graduates," adding, "The remaining 97% of police officers bear responsibility without authority and cannot see any reward system. If this continues, it inevitably leads to lowered morale and ineffective responses."

When the host asked, "There is controversy that if male officers had been on the scene, they might have subdued the perpetrator to some extent," Kwon responded that physical strength is not the most decisive factor in on-site response. She said, "Regarding on-site response, weapons and training to suppress are important," and added, "This training has been repeatedly pointed out as insufficient in previous incidents such as the Daerim-dong female police officer case and the group assault in Gwangju, and the related manuals have already been supplemented. However, the police organization has not made any improvements in these areas, which is a more fundamental problem."

She continued, "Because human rights issues are also involved, on-site police officers are actually taking a very passive approach to their duties," and emphasized, "There needs to be a social system or an internal police system that accurately judges after listening to the primary judgment of on-site officers. The existing perspectives of police overreaction and hasty on-site judgment must be improved together."

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