Police Supervisor Accused of Inflating Performance Gets Official Warning Instead of Discipline

A police supervisor accused of teaching officers how to make performance figures look better will receive an official warning, not formal disciplinary action.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said on June 2 that it would take personnel measures against a section chief at Seongnam Sujeong Police Station. The agency also plans to caution a staff member who supported the section chief, issue an official warning to the department head and caution the station chief for failing to supervise the department properly.

The controversy began with training held from April 21 to 23 for local police officers. The section chief allegedly said that officers could consider applying a charge of embezzlement of lost property, rather than theft, when ownership was unclear in cases such as apartment package theft. Theft counts as a serious crime, and local officers receive performance points for their response. Embezzlement of lost property does not carry the same penalty in the performance system, meaning an unarrested case would not reduce their figures.

Critics questioned whether the guidance aimed to inflate results. After the training, cases classified as embezzlement of lost property increased in the station’s jurisdiction. The section chief also allegedly instructed officers during training in March to process reports involving stalking or domestic violence as formal escort cases, which count toward arrests, rather than as occurrence reports, which do not affect performance figures.

An official warning and a caution are not formal legal disciplinary measures, and neither requires a disciplinary committee. Police said they would closely monitor performance management, provide recurrence-prevention training for relevant department heads and section chiefs, gather field opinions on quantitative evaluations, and recommend institutional improvements to the National Police Agency.

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We will closely monitor performance management, provide recurrence-prevention training for crime prevention and response department heads and section chiefs, and gather field opinions on local police performance evaluations before recommending institutional improvements to the National Police Agency.