Human Rights Commission: "Standards Recognizing Only Normal Hearing for Police Officer Recruitment Must Be Improved"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission has expressed an opinion to the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency to improve related regulations to prevent discrimination against individuals with corrected hearing in the police officer recruitment process.

On the 7th, the Human Rights Commission stated, "Rather than uniformly excluding applicants with corrected hearing from police officer recruitment, it is necessary to establish detailed physical standards regarding hearing and speech discrimination ability to expand opportunities for social participation." However, it dismissed the petition, stating that the current hearing standards in the police officer recruitment exam are not considered discriminatory in hiring.

The petitioner previously filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, arguing that the current hearing standards in the police officer recruitment physical examination do not recognize corrected hearing (hearing with a hearing aid) other than normal hearing in both ears, making it impossible to apply, and that this constitutes discrimination against those with corrected hearing. The respondent argued that hearing is an important physical factor for performing police duties, and that corrected hearing may have poorer sound discrimination compared to normal hearing, so the hearing standard of 40dB (decibels) at recruitment is not an excessive criterion. In particular, they emphasized that since most police work is conducted in noisy environments and involves listening and transmitting situations through voice or radios, sound discrimination is a very important element in performing police duties.

The Human Rights Commission judged that the domestic hearing standards for police officer recruitment exams are not higher than those of other countries and that it is necessary to establish standards based on the correlation between police work performance and hearing. However, it saw the need to improve discrimination caused by the current standards that only recognize normal hearing. This judgment was based on the fact that in Los Angeles, USA, and London, UK, corrected hearing is recognized during police officer recruitment and additional tests are provided to offer opportunities, and that in Korea, corrected hearing is recognized in the recruitment standards for firefighters, whose job conditions are similar to those of police officers.

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