Heatwave exposes gender duty gap in police riot units

Police officers stand guard under a large shade canopy at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul. [Yonhap]

"Female officers inside the air-conditioned bus, male officers baking in the sun."

As rallies and facility security duties continue through relentless summer heat, a fairness dispute over duty assignments between male and female officers has grown at police stations and mobile units with heavy security demands — including those in Seoul's Jongno and Yeongdeungpo districts.

Complaints and tip-offs have been flooding police internal networks and anonymous workplace forums, with officers alleging that female officers wait inside vehicles or indoors while male officers are assigned to prolonged outdoor posts. Police say there is no directive allowing female officers to rest separately, and that the deployment of the all-female mobile unit must be understood in the context of its operational purpose.

Fairness debate floods online forums

According to police and other sources, dozens of posts criticizing duty assignments at security sites across Seoul appeared on police internal networks and online communities in recent days. The posts claimed that at the rear gate of the National Assembly, only female officers were assigned to air-conditioned buses or containerized command posts, while male officers stood fixed posts in direct sunlight and female officers came outside only when an incident occurred.

Similar posts followed, with officers writing that "men are made to stand in the blazing sun while female officers work in air-conditioned rooms," that "it's the same in Songpa-gu and Jongno, not just Yeongdeungpo," and that "we receive the same pay but face unequal duties." Some authors went so far as to publish tip-offs they had already submitted to a broadcaster, and said they would report additional cases from other police stations.

A post on a police internal online community alleging unequal duty assignments between male and female mobile unit officers. [Blind]

Officers on the ground said the current dispute traces back to security duties at Olympic Park following the June 3 local elections, when complaints arose that male officers bore a disproportionate share of outdoor duty during 24-hour rotating shifts. Those grievances did not spread widely at the time, but the onset of intense summer heat brought accumulated frustrations to the surface all at once.

A lieutenant at a Seoul district police station who previously served in a mobile unit said the gap in working conditions between male and female mobile unit officers is nothing new. "In the past the disparity was even worse — shift hours were different too — but the culture was to just put up with it," he said. "Now it's MZ generation officers who are actively speaking up."

He added that the grueling nature of mobile unit duty itself, compounded by the recent heatwave, appeared to have triggered an outpouring of long-pent-up frustration. "Rather than saying things have gotten worse recently, I'd say the expansion of mixed-gender units has actually brought gradual improvements compared to the past," he said.

'The problem is deployment standards, not gender' — views divided on the ground

Serving officers were nonetheless united in cautioning against generalizing the dispute as a problem with all female officers. Nationwide, police mobile units number 60 in total — 28 are mixed-gender, 31 are all-male, and just one all-female unit remains: the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's 15th Mobile Unit.

Mixed-gender units were first piloted by the South Gyeongsang Province Police Agency in August 2022 and expanded nationwide, including to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, in February 2023. Because mixed-gender units operate with men and women sharing commutes, field deployments and duty arrangements, officers said gender-based disparities are difficult to sustain within them.

"What's being posted on Blind may well refer specifically to the one remaining all-female mobile unit," said an investigator at a local police station. "In mixed-gender units, men and women work the same duties, as far as I know."

Police mobile unit officers clear objects blocking an entrance and open the doors at the ballot-counting center at Olympic Park's handball arena in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on July 2. [Yonhap]

A police officer handling intelligence work said that in practice, duty positions are often determined not by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency or the mobile unit command but by the security division of each individual police station. "There's a good chance this is a problem that arose during on-site command," the officer said.

On the ground, frustration is also directed at those perceived to be taking easy assignments. "Nobody likes someone who only works in comfortable spots when it's this hot," one officer said. A police official noted that female officers in mixed-gender units work the same duties as their male counterparts yet receive almost no tangible benefits, while the all-female unit's practices have drawn criticism toward female officers as a whole. "There's negative sentiment among female officers too," the official said.

Another frontline officer, identified only as A, said male officers complain of the physical toll of high-intensity outdoor duty, while female officers say being excluded from key field assignments puts them at a disadvantage in career development and performance evaluations. "Ultimately this isn't a problem of one particular gender," A said. "The core issue is that the standards are unclear — for rest and rotation during a heatwave, for vehicle standby and on-site command post operations, and for mission allocation in mixed-gender units."

Posts on a police internal online community alleging reverse discrimination in the working conditions of the all-female mobile unit. [Blind]

The Korean National Police Agency's mobile police management division said there is no separate operational directive ordering different duty arrangements based on gender. "There cannot be, and should not be, any guideline that lets only women rest separately," an agency official said. "There may be differences in how individual agencies operate, but we do not assign duties differently based on gender alone."

The official noted, however, that the all-female mobile unit operates under a different mandate from regular units. "The all-female unit is a formation that includes a standby concept, designed for specialized missions such as responding to female protesters," the official said. "Rather than concluding from appearances alone that the assignments are biased, it is necessary to consider the unit's operational purpose and background."

The official added that as employee fatigue has grown with the recent heatwave, management is aware of the internal discontent and has been adjusting some field duty arrangements. "We are also continuing to provide support to improve working conditions for our officers," the official said.

jookapooka@heraldcorp.com