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Introduced as a safeguard to address side effects following the adjustment of investigative authority between prosecutors and police
Experts supporting abolition warn the system has only heightened concerns over inadequate responses, including the alleged suppression of cases
Others urge caution: “We must avoid demonizing the entire system over isolated misconduct”

Concerns over declining discipline and inadequate responses across the police organization have come under scrutiny following allegations that a police officer in charge of a missing-person case in Jeju arbitrarily closed the case — an incident described as the alleged “burial” or suppression of a case.

In particular, criticism is mounting that the autonomous police system, ambitiously introduced in 2021 under the banner of providing policing tailored to local communities, may instead be contributing to structural problems by allowing local collusion to go unchecked and creating conditions that can lead to inadequate investigations.

According to police and other sources on the 27th, the autonomous police system, which had been implemented in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province since 2006, was expanded nationwide beginning July 1, 2021.

Autonomous Police Committees established in each city and province were tasked with directing and supervising community-focused policing services, including public safety, protection of women and juveniles, and traffic management.

(omitted)

Chon Hyeong Hwan, a former police officer and Managing Partner at MegaX Law Office, said, “Under an autonomous police system, the link with the national police — which may later become responsible for a criminal investigation — can be severed.”

“Because autonomous police officers operate at the closest level to local communities, if there is collusion or improper solicitation, there is a significant risk that complaints which could otherwise develop into criminal investigations may be quietly resolved or suppressed at an early stage,” Chon said.

Some experts also argue that the core problem behind declining discipline lies in a weak internal system that allows frontline officers to effectively bury cases at their own discretion.

Chon said, “Before a formal criminal investigation is initiated through a complaint or accusation, various civil complaints and reports received by autonomous police may never be transferred to investigative authorities, creating a significant risk that they could instead be informally closed or suppressed at the frontline level.”

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