Active-duty police officers in Sejong and Daejeon have been or are currently under internal investigation for conduct unbecoming of their position.

According to the Sejong and Daejeon metropolitan police agencies and Yonhap, police recently conducted an internal audit of Officer A, attached to a Sejong police station, and issued a formal warning.

At around 11:13 p.m. on June 1, Officer A engaged in intimate behavior with an acquaintance on a park bench in Hansol-dong, Sejong. A passerby who witnessed the scene called 112, reporting that a man and a woman were engaged in excessive public displays of affection on a bench next to a park restroom.

When officers arrived at the scene, the woman had already left and only the man remained.

The person who made the report stated they had not suffered any harm from the incident, so responding officers issued the man a verbal warning. It was only afterward, while checking his personal details, that they discovered he was a serving police officer.

"Given the nature of the conduct, the location and the time it was discovered, we determined it did not constitute public indecency," a police official told Yonhap. "However, we conducted an internal audit on grounds including conduct unbecoming and issued a non-disciplinary warning, along with a personnel measure."

Earlier, in early May, allegations emerged that a unit at a Daejeon police station had collected between 700,000 and 800,000 won ($537) in cash from staff members as a farewell gift for a senior officer, identified as B, who was being transferred to another police agency.

The practice of subordinates pooling cash to give a departing superior — known as "jeonbyeolgeum," or farewell money — has largely disappeared from the public sector in recent years, and officers within the police have expressed surprise that it occurred at all.

A mid-level supervisor in the unit collected the money independently and passed it to B, who later returned the full amount to the staff.

The Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency is investigating B and the staff members of the unit to establish the precise facts of the matter.


mss@heraldcorp.com