Pilot Police Program

[Anchor Lead]

The government and the ruling party have decided to institute local police forces. From now on, municipal and provincial police forces will perform public security duties and obtain investigative rights. This pilot police program will be tried out in five cities and provinces, starting this year, before expanding it nationwide in 2021.

[Pkg]

Starting this year, Korea's police force will be divided into two parts - the national police and the municipal and provincial autonomous police. According to the revised police law agreed by the government, the president's office, and political parties, the national police will carry out activities that require unified processing, such as intelligence, security, and external affairs, while municipal and provincial police forces will be in charge of public safety, traffic, and other matters closely related to people's everyday lives, and even be granted the right to investigate related cases. But there will be no new police recruits. Instead, 43,000 of existing police officers will be assigned to provincial police forces in phases. Starting this year, the new police forces will be instituted on a trial basis in five localities - Jejudo Island where the system is already in place, Seoul, Sejong, and two other undetermined regions. The new system will be expanded nationwide in 2021. Cheong Wa Dae, which has been pushing to institute the local police system as its political agenda, emphasized that the new system will be phased in, suggesting that the Presidential Office was aware that police officers were disgruntled about being reassigned to local police forces.

[Soundbite] Cho Kuk(Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs) : "We aim to put the local police system firmly in place by gradually expanding its authority and organization manpower."

Following the tripartite agreement to disperse police authority, President Moon plans to preside over a strategy meeting today about readjusting the investigative rights of the prosecution and the police.