The National Police Agency issued a report Aug. 16 showing that police departments nationwide have been plagued by a series of irregularities involving police officers and workers. When you take into account the nearly 300,000 people working for the police force, the known irregularities are probably only a tiny number of the total. The police must do more to educate individual officers and workers on the high standards expected of them.
More important, law enforcement authorities need to strictly examine whether the police's organizational culture is lenient toward problematic behavior of inside people.
In the January-June period, 205 police officers and workers were subjected to disciplinary action, including dismissal, suspension from duty, wage cuts and reprimands. This is the first time since 2003 that more than 200 police officers and workers have been disciplined in the first six months of a year.