Nine in 10 Police Officers Oppose Rotational Assignments and More Inspection Staff; Doubts Remain Over Control of Investigative Authority

[Financial News] As police move to expand rotational personnel assignments and increase inspection staff, a survey found that a large majority of participating officers opposed the policies. Nearly 90% said that increasing inspection staff to strengthen internal oversight would not be an effective means of appropriately controlling police investigative authority.
According to the “2026 Survey of Frontline Opinions on the Korean National Police Agency’s Compulsory Rotational Personnel Assignments and Increased Inspection Staff,” released on the 4th by the Joint Struggle Committee for the Compulsory Rotational Personnel Assignment under the Police Workplace Council, 68.2% of respondents said “not at all” when asked whether strengthening internal inspection functions, including increasing inspection staff, would be an effective means of appropriately controlling police investigative authority. Another 20.6% said it was “generally not effective.” Combined, negative responses totaled 88.8%. By contrast, 1.9% said it was “generally effective,” 0.6% said it was “very effective,” and 8.6% said it was “neither effective nor ineffective.”
Opposition was also overwhelming toward the broader police organizational reform policies currently under discussion, including expanded rotational personnel assignments and increased inspection staff. A total of 69.6% said there was “no need at all to implement them,” while 25.6% said the “need for implementation was low,” bringing the combined figure to 95.2%. Only 1.4% said they “needed to be implemented,” and 0.6% said they “needed to be actively implemented.”
Opposition was particularly strong toward individual policies. Regarding the policy of expanding rotational personnel assignments, 86.3% described themselves as “very negative” and 10% as “generally negative,” for a combined negative assessment of 96.3%.
Respondents also largely opposed strengthening inspection functions, including increasing inspection staff. Some 68.7% said it was “completely unnecessary,” while 18.7% said it was “generally unnecessary,” bringing the total to 87.4%. Only 2.7% said it was “generally necessary,” and 0.7% said it was “very necessary.”
There were also widespread concerns that stronger inspections could discourage frontline law enforcement. Asked how increasing inspection staff and strengthening their functions would affect law enforcement by frontline police officers, 58.3% said it would “significantly discourage” enforcement, while 27.9% said it would “somewhat discourage” it. Only 2.7% said it would “somewhat increase” accountability in law enforcement, and 1.5% said it would “significantly increase” it.
Similar views emerged regarding rotational assignments in investigative departments. Asked how expanding rotational assignments in investigative departments or replacing all long-serving personnel at once would affect investigative quality, 72% said it would have a “very negative impact,” while 19.7% said it would have a “somewhat negative impact.” The combined negative outlook was 91.7%.
The survey was conducted among 130,972 police officers nationwide through a Google survey accessed by mobile phone, with 9,000 people participating. However, because participants were recruited voluntarily without quotas by gender, age, or region, the results cannot be generalized as the views of all police officers. The report presented 3,000 cases as the weighted sample size.
[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter