Police union declares head-shaving protest against rotation transfers, with first action set for Monday
The so-called "hyangchal" problem — officers spending more than a decade at a single police station — has drawn fire after it emerged that both the lead investigator in the Jang Yun-gi case and Jang's father had worked at Gwangju's Gwangsan Police Station for more than 18 and 10 years, respectively, amid allegations of improper ties between the two. About 17,000 officers nationwide fall into this category, and roughly one in four or five supervisory-level officers who lead frontline operations are among them. The government has since announced plans to expand its rotation transfer system.
The National Police Workplace Council declared a head-shaving protest Thursday and demanded that the Korean National Police Agency open talks to reconsider the policy. The joint struggle committee the council formed to oppose forced rotation transfers and push for better working conditions held a meeting at the council's office inside the agency and announced the decision.
The committee said it had asked the agency to explain the rationale behind the rotation transfer and internal affairs staffing expansion policies and to hold talks to gather frontline officers' views, but the agency had not done so. The committee said it was therefore resorting to a head-shaving protest as a last appeal. The first shaving will take place at a launch rally in front of the agency's main gate at 1 p.m. Monday.
Co-chairman Min Gwan-gi and nine others will be the first to shave their heads. If the agency still does not engage in talks on reconsidering the policy, the committee plans to hold rallies in front of the agency once or twice a week and continue a relay of head-shavings. "The head-shaving is meant to convey to the public and to the Korean National Police Agency the desperate voices of frontline officers and their strong opposition to the forced rotation transfer policy," the committee said.
A Korean National Police Agency official said the agency had already told the council it would carefully review any frontline opinions on the rotation transfer system if they were compiled and submitted, and that it had arranged a joint meeting space inside the agency to help council representatives gather and organize their views. The police plan to introduce the expanded rotation transfer system — driven by the controversy over shoddy investigation and alleged collusion surrounding the Jang Yun-gi case — in the first half of next year.
kty@heraldcorp.com
