Police to Pilot Mixed-Gender Riot Police Unit

Seodaemun-gu Police Agency building in Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The police announced on the 22nd that they plan to reorganize the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency's 2nd Mobile Unit into a mixed-gender police mobile unit and conduct a pilot operation.

According to the police, the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency's 2nd Mobile Unit was previously composed entirely of male officers in three squads. However, with the addition of a newly established female police squad on the 23rd, it will become the first mixed-gender police mobile unit. Currently, most police mobile units are composed of male officers, and female police mobile units are separately organized only in some regions such as Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Gyeonggi, and Gyeongnam. However, considering the need to improve administrative manpower requirements caused by the separate operation of female police squads and the fact that police mobile units in major foreign countries operate as mixed-gender units, the National Police Agency explained that they decided to promote a pilot operation of a mixed-gender mobile unit.

It is known that the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency's 2nd Mobile Unit has completed facility improvements such as offices, lounges, restrooms, and shower rooms on the first floor vacant space to reorganize into a mixed-gender mobile unit. In the future, male and female officers will be jointly deployed for various duties such as managing assemblies and demonstrations and supporting public safety, and they will be trained together without distinction between male and female officers. The police expect that reorganizing and operating as a mixed-gender police mobile unit will unify the command system and increase the number of deployed personnel, thereby strengthening on-site response capabilities.

The National Police Agency plans to evaluate the results through the pilot operation of the Gyeongnam mixed-gender mobile unit in the second half of this year and review whether to expand the mixed-gender mobile units nationwide and the detailed implementation plans.

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