National Police Agency Sets Next Year’s Budget at Approximately 15 Trillion Won: “Strengthening Public Safety and Frontline Response”

[Financial News] The Korean National Police Agency has set its proposed budget for next year at 14.9832 trillion won to respond to crimes affecting everyday public safety and transnational crimes, including drug and phishing offenses, protect crime victims, and strengthen frontline response capabilities.
The Korean National Police Agency announced on the 3rd that it had set its proposed 2027 budget at 14.9832 trillion won, an increase of 5.1% (721 billion won) from this year. Major program expenditures account for 2.8765 trillion won, up 6.4% (171.9 billion won) from this year.
Next year’s budget will focus on enhancing capabilities to respond to transnational crimes and crimes affecting everyday public safety. Funding for the entire process of cracking down on, detecting, and investigating drug-related crimes will rise nearly sevenfold, from 980 million won this year to 6.83 billion won next year.
A total of 6.86 billion won has been allocated to strengthen virtual-asset investigation capabilities, including the expanded distribution of virtual-asset analysis programs and outsourced storage of seized items. Funding to distribute high-performance workstations from frontline police stations to metropolitan and provincial police agencies, enabling the analysis of photographs, videos, and vast amounts of financial data, will also increase nearly tenfold, from 440 million won this year to 4.18 billion won.
Funding for the repatriation of fugitives overseas and international joint investigations will increase from 560 million won to 1.46 billion won. To encourage reports and tips on phishing, fraud, and technology-leak crimes, rewards for apprehending criminals will rise from 2.55 billion won to 3.59 billion won, while rewards for reporting technology-leak crimes will increase from 5 million won to 300 million won.
Funding for crime prevention and victim protection has also been increased. A total of 2.89 billion won will be invested in a project to install intelligent closed-circuit television (CCTV) at the homes of high-risk victims and other locations, allowing approaches by perpetrators to be detected in advance. An additional 300 million won has been newly allocated for specialized services to detect location-tracking devices used to identify the whereabouts of victims of crimes involving personal relationships.
Funding to cover autopsy costs that had been partially borne by bereaved families and others will increase by 6.01 billion won, from 9.16 billion won this year to 15.17 billion won. Programs to prevent and treat cyber-gambling addiction among adolescents will also expand from 2.2 billion won to 8.5 billion won.
In connection with the 2027 Summer Universiade to be held in the Chungcheong region, 14.27 billion won will be newly allocated for security at venues, counterterrorism measures, and safety management at events involving large crowds.
The agency will also expand equipment and infrastructure to strengthen frontline public-safety capabilities. Specialized artificial-intelligence (AI) robots will be introduced for counterterrorism, forensic investigations, crime prevention, and security operations. The budget for counterterrorism-response robots will double from 2.4 billion won this year to 4.8 billion won next year, while 2.25 billion won for robots that collect evidence at dangerous sites, 4.5 billion won for crime-prevention robots, and 4 billion won for police-unit support robots have each been newly allocated.
A further 910 million won will be newly allocated to introduce safety personnel and rear safety-alert devices to prevent secondary accidents involving highway patrol units. Another 16.26 billion won will be newly invested in reinforcing bullet-catching walls at shooting ranges at police facilities nationwide to improve the safety of police officers’ firearms training.
The government’s budget proposal for next year will be finalized after review by the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. An official from the Korean National Police Agency said, "Through the secured budget, we will strengthen infrastructure for responding to crime, protecting victims, and supporting frontline police officers in carrying out their duties."

[email protected] Yeji Kim Reporter