[Exclusive] Testimony on Workplace Abuse Deleted Arbitrarily... Officer Referred for Investigation

Inspector Probing Gangnam Police Station's Female Officer Abuse Allegations
Arbitrarily Deleted Colleague's Testimony Without Reporting to Superiors
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Transfers Inspector After Fact-Finding
Plans to File Offic

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's internal audit officer investigating allegations of abuse of authority at the Gangnam Police Station was found to have arbitrarily deleted a colleague’s statement. The officer did not report the record to superiors and erased it, believing disclosure of the testimony could result in disadvantages for those involved. After conducting a belated fact-finding investigation, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency decided to file official disciplinary charges against the officer concerned.

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Yonhap News Agency

On September 3, the Auditing and Human Rights Office of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced plans to request a formal investigation regarding Inspector A, who belongs to the Dongjak Police Station. Inspector A was previously assigned to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Inspection Intelligence Division but was transferred in a personnel reshuffle at the end of last month.

Inspector A received information about the alleged abuse of power in October last year and launched an investigation. At that time, the female officers who claimed to be victims stated that after switching to reduced working hours for childcare reasons, they were required by their department supervisors to seek permission every time they went to the restroom. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency determined there was a problem with the supervisor’s conduct and referred the person to the disciplinary committee in June this year.

Subsequently, the female officers who had been identified as victims also became new targets of internal audit, cited for “disrupting internal cohesion” and other reasons. During this process, it became clear that Inspector A had deleted part of the statement records. While only Officer B agreed to make a statement during the abuse investigation and the female officers declined to testify, Inspector A was required to formally close Officer B’s statement. However, Inspector A deleted the record without reporting this to superiors.

Inspector A claimed during the fact-finding investigation that Officer B had agreed to the deletion of the statement record, but it was reported that Officer B nonetheless raised concerns that the deletion process was illegal. Once the audit began targeting the female officers, Officer B was also included as a subject of the internal audit.

A Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency official said, “The other female officers strongly refused to testify at the time. Since revealing that a statement had been made could cause trouble or harm, and as it was a matter set to be closed anyway, Inspector A explained the reasoning to Officer B and then deleted the record.” The official added, “We do not report every statement we collect, but if we had reported this, it’s unlikely a superior would have instructed deletion in this manner. We plan to request an official investigation.”

Even if the person giving the statement agreed to the deletion, or the record was set to be formally closed, criminal liability remains a separate matter. If documents used in the course of public duties are arbitrarily destroyed, the crime of invalidation of official documents under the Criminal Act may be applied.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled in cases where police officers destroyed a statement record without formally reporting it or appending it to the investigation file, stating that “as long as the document is intended for official use, it does not matter whether it was received or finalized through formal procedures”—thus, the crime is still constituted. If the record deleted by Inspector A was in electronic form, the crime of damaging public electronic records may be considered.

Meanwhile, separate from the deleted records, the audit targeting the female officers who alleged workplace abuse is ongoing, sparking internal controversy at the police over accusations of retaliatory audits. It was reported that the spouse of one of the female officers, who is also a police officer, posted criticism of these actions on an anonymous message board and was subsequently questioned for over nine hours.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.