Crime arrests and investigations account for most police award nominees’ achievements... What did 3,389 nominees do?

[Financial News] Ahead of the 81st anniversary of Police Day on the 21st, an analysis of the achievements of award nominees over the past five years found that crime arrests and investigations accounted for the largest share. A considerable number of nominees had also protected the public’s lives, property and safety, or contributed to crime prevention and public safety activities. The average length of nominees’ achievement summaries had fallen over the five-year period.
An analysis by Financial News on the 20th of data on Police Day award nominees found that there were 3,389 nominees in total over the five years from 2022 to 2026. The yearly figures were 835 in 2022, 705 in 2023, 626 in 2024, 747 in 2025 and 476 this year.
By area of achievement, crime arrests and investigations ranked first, with 1,326 nominees. A total of 869 nominees had made contributions to protecting the public’s lives, property and safety, while 679 were in crime prevention and public safety activities. Together, the three areas accounted for 2,874 nominees, or about 84.8% of the total.
This suggests that police work extends beyond solving crimes to a broad range of activities, including protecting public safety and preventing crime in advance. However, the number of nominees in each area is based on the achievement categories listed in the data, so it is difficult to treat these figures as a direct measure for comparing actual workloads or levels of performance across areas.
The word that appeared most often in the nominees’ achievement summaries was “contribution.” The expression appeared in the summaries of 2,799 nominees, with 3,229 occurrences in total. Other words used repeatedly included “establishment” (701 times), “development” (680), “improvement” (535) and “strengthening” (460).
Among terms related to specific duties, “investigation” appeared 668 times and “arrest” 634 times. “Crime prevention” (446), “traffic” (376), “education” (274) and “victims” (149) also featured among the main words used to describe achievements. Since a single summary could contain multiple terms, the counts for each item included repetitions.
The data show that police achievements span a range of duties, including traffic safety management, education and victim protection, as well as crime investigation and arrests. Although the frequency of a word’s appearance alone cannot directly compare the importance or actual results of each duty, the wording in the achievement summaries offers a way to examine the scope of police work.
The length of achievement summaries has also changed gradually. The average number of characters in each nominee’s summary fell from 100.9 in 2022 to 96.7 in 2023, 94.8 in 2024 and 80.6 in 2025. This year, the average was 62.2 characters. This year’s public-review materials limit achievement summaries to 75 characters.
The public review of government award nominees is a process in which their achievements are disclosed to the public and opinions are invited. The National Police Agency conducted the public review of government award nominees for the 81st anniversary of Police Day from September 15 to 30.
The fact that achievement summaries are getting shorter does not, by itself, establish that award reviews have become perfunctory. That is because actual award reviews may also draw on records of achievements and related materials, in addition to the summaries made public. However, concerns have been raised that the more limited the information available to the public during the review process, the harder it may be to understand specifically what a nominee did and what results they achieved. Expressions such as “contribution” or “strengthening,” which summarize results, can help convey the nature of an achievement, but do not in themselves explain the specific activities and outcomes. Since the work performed and results achieved can differ from one nominee to another even when the same expression is used, analysts say it is also important to examine how much information public materials provide to distinguish between them.
An official at a civic group said, “Recognizing the police’s achievements and ensuring that the public can examine them in detail should go hand in hand,” adding, “Providing a full account of achievements during the awards process and enabling the public to offer input would help build trust in the police.”
[email protected] Seo Ji-yoon Reporter