[Exclusive] Police to Increase Personnel by 25 for Yoon's War on Drugs Policy

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The number of drug investigation personnel in the national police force will increase by 25 this month.

According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy on the 14th, a police organizational amendment bill that includes increasing the number of drug investigation personnel by 25 was submitted and approved at the Cabinet meeting on the 11th. This amendment will be reflected in related laws on the 18th, and the police can immediately increase the relevant personnel.

A police official stated, "Following the recent policy to strengthen drug investigations, we plan to recruit 25 officers this month and assign them to police stations responsible for necessary drug investigations."

Originally, the police requested an increase of 80 dedicated drug investigation personnel in the 2023 budget last year, but the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Economy and Finance did not accept it. However, as drug crimes have surged this year and President Yoon Seok-yeol ordered a strict crackdown on drug crimes, the government has agreed to increase the number by 25 amid a nationwide all-out drug enforcement effort.

However, the police believe that the current increase is insufficient to cope with the rapidly increasing drug crimes sweeping across the country recently.

According to the National Police Agency, out of about 30,000 investigative police officers in South Korea, only 366 are dedicated to drug investigations. In 2020, the National Police Agency requested 159 drug investigation personnel and received an increase of 100; in 2021, they requested 297 and received 85; in 2022 and 2023, they requested 216 and 80 respectively, but no personnel were added for two consecutive years. According to the Police Policy Research Institute in 2018, the appropriate number of dedicated drug investigation personnel was 692 at that time.

Although drug crimes are increasing every year, there are criticisms that sufficient investigations are difficult due to limitations in personnel and budget. This year's drug budget recorded 3.12 billion KRW, an increase of only 1.2 billion KRW compared to the previous year (1.91 billion KRW). On the other hand, according to the National Police Agency, the number of drug offenders arrested by the police last year was 12,387, the highest ever. Especially due to the impact of non-face-to-face transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of drug offenders, which was in the 8,000 range, reached about 10,000 between 2019 and 2021.

Because of this, each provincial police agency is struggling to devise self-help plans. Kim Kwang-ho, Commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, held the first regular meeting of the 'Joint Response Task Force for Drug Crimes' on the same day and announced that 20 police stations would be temporarily designated and operated as dedicated drug investigation teams. Commissioner Kim said, "We will expand investigative personnel by organizing a Cyber Drug Crime Investigation Team within the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and deploy specialized investigative personnel centered on the Metropolitan Investigation Unit."

Jung Woong, a researcher at the Police University’s Police Policy Research Institute, said, "A small number of personnel are handling various investigative tasks without fully reflecting the recent increasing trend," and added, "It is necessary to strengthen internet drug investigation personnel for tracking investigations and data analysis on the internet and social networking services (SNS)." He further predicted, "Considering the development trend of new drug crime methods, the burden on police drug investigation personnel will continue to increase."

Meanwhile, the National Police Agency plans to continuously push for additional personnel increases. A National Police Agency official said, "Recently, drugs have appeared as new types of crimes combined with voice phishing and other crimes, emerging as a serious social problem," and added, "We plan to strengthen the investigative organization through securing budget and personnel." Commissioner Yoon Hee-geun previously promised to promote the entire team if they successfully dismantle drug manufacturing and distribution offenders.

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