[Exclusive] Mass Detection of Police Academy Freshmen Involved in Online Education 'Fraudulent Completion'

First Education Book After Education System Reform
Separate Program Allows Speed Playback
Previous Cohorts May Also Have 'Fraud' Possibility

Chungju Central Police Academy exterior. Photo by Chungju Central Police Academy promotional video capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] It has been revealed that some new police trainees completed their pre-admission online training at the Central Police Academy through dishonest methods. This is the first case of such misconduct since the Central Police Academy was established in 1987. The incident occurred within the restructured training system implemented after the controversy over inadequate response during last year's Incheon stabbing incident, and it is expected to cause considerable repercussions within the police force.

According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy on the 18th, the Central Police Academy recently detected that some trainees of the 310th class, who enrolled earlier this year, used speed adjustment programs to complete their pre-admission online training. The Academy is currently conducting an internal investigation after obtaining written confessions from the involved trainees. A representative of the Central Police Academy stated, "We are currently investigating the matter and determining exactly how many trainees engaged in dishonest completion. It is not just one or two individuals, and the school is taking this very seriously."

The training in question is a preliminary course where trainees study core theoretical subjects before entering the Central Police Academy. For the 310th class, the course was conducted over two weeks from December 27 of last year until January 7, the day before admission. The pre-admission online training consists of 14 subjects including Criminal Investigation, Investigation, Arrest Techniques, and Shooting, delivered through 67 video lectures. Watching all videos normally takes 67 hours. Although the Academy’s proprietary video player allows playback at up to 1.5 times speed, the trainees caught in this case used separate speed adjustment programs to watch the videos at even faster speeds. The police became suspicious due to the large discrepancy between the actual training time logged by these trainees and the normal completion time (67 hours), which led to the investigation and eventual detection of this misconduct.

This is reportedly the first case of dishonest completion of pre-admission online training using speed adjustment programs at the Central Police Academy. Considering that this training has been conducted in previous years as well, it cannot be ruled out that trainees from earlier classes may have also completed the training improperly. A representative of the Central Police Academy said, "We have not yet identified any prior cases of dishonest completion. Since this is the first detected case, discussions on system improvements are also underway."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This pre-admission online training was the first to be implemented under the strengthened training system policy introduced after the inadequate response controversy during last year's Incheon stabbing incident. Earlier, Commissioner General Kim Chang-ryong of the National Police Agency apologized for the police’s inadequate response to the stabbing incident caused by inter-floor noise at a villa in Incheon last November and promised to strengthen training. On November 30 of that year, he personally visited the Central Police Academy to emphasize the importance of enhancing field response capabilities and police spirit. Accordingly, the number of videos in the pre-admission online training increased by seven from 60 in the 309th class before the incident, and the content was significantly revamped.

The Central Police Academy plans to require the trainees caught in this case to retake the course as a priority. After further investigation, those who falsely completed the pre-admission online training will face disciplinary decisions through additional internal and external discussions. A representative of the Central Police Academy stated, "We will refer to guidelines related to similar past misconduct cases handled by the Ministry of Education and take strict measures based on the results of discussions by the Education Operations Committee, which includes external members."

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