Despite Calls for a Tough Response, 354 Police Officers Saw Disciplinary Actions Reduced or Overturned Over Five Years

[Financial News] Amid a series of police misconduct and poor performance, disciplinary actions against 354 police officers over the past five years were reduced, canceled, or declared invalid through appeals review.
As misconduct cases emerged one after another, police leadership repeatedly stressed a tough response. However, the growing number of cases in which actual disciplinary outcomes were overturned has also fueled concerns over the credibility of the disciplinary system.
According to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Park Sang-woong of the People Power Party, a member of the Security and Public Administration Committee, 331 police officers had their disciplinary penalties reduced through appeals review from 2021 through last year. By year, the number fell from 73 in 2021 to 59 in 2022 and 48 in 2023, before rising again to 76 in 2024 and 75 last year.
During the same period, 23 cases had the disciplinary action itself canceled or declared invalid. Combined with the cases of reduced penalties, a total of 354 disciplinary outcomes were changed through appeals review over the five-year period.
An appeal is a special administrative review procedure in which a public official requests the cancellation or modification of an unfavorable decision, such as disciplinary action.
The number of appeals review cases involving police officers also increased. According to the Appeals Review Committee under the Ministry of Personnel Management, the number of processed cases related to police officers rose 34.3% from 306 in 2021 to 411 last year.
There were also cases in which the severity of punishment was sharply reduced. In Gwangju in 2024, a police officer who caused an accident while driving under the influence and fled was dismissed, but the penalty was reduced to demotion through appeals review. With the dismissal changed to demotion, the officer was able to retain police status and begin reinstatement procedures.
There were also 28 cases in which disciplinary actions were overturned again in administrative lawsuits after appeals review. The cases were tallied at 4 in 2021, 11 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 6 in 2024, and 2 last year.
As misconduct and poor performance by police have continued recently, concerns over the effectiveness of disciplinary measures are also mounting.
In Jeju Province, a police officer was arrested on suspicion of closing a missing-person case about 2 hours and 30 minutes after receiving a report that a woman in her 30s had gone missing, without directly confirming the victim's safety. In Gwangju, another case surfaced in which key evidence was not secured during an investigation and investigative information was leaked to the family of an active-duty police officer.
Rep. Park Sang-woong said the repeated misconduct within the police shows a serious breakdown in discipline and stressed that responsibility must be held regardless of rank.
Lee Woong-hyuk, a professor in the police studies department at Konkuk University, explained that repeated reductions in disciplinary action through appeals may mean the facts and the degree of responsibility were not sufficiently assessed at the initial disciplinary stage. He also warned that in cases drawing strong public attention, organizations may first impose a harsh penalty and then adjust it during the appeals process, a so-called "cutting off the tail" response.

[email protected] Kang Jung-mo Reporter