Police officers assigned to investigations in South Korea worked an average of nearly 70 hours of overtime a month this year, as the government's prosecutorial reform dismantled the prosecution service and sharply expanded the police's investigative powers and responsibilities. The National Police Agency has pledged to add investigative staff, but officers say the underlying problem will not be solved unless working conditions for investigators improve at the same time.
Data submitted by the National Police Agency to the office of Rep. Kang Myung-koo of the People Power Party and obtained by The Seoul Economic Daily on the 21st showed that investigative units at 19 agencies, including the agency's headquarters, averaged 69.5 hours of overtime per officer a month this year. That works out to more than three extra hours a day. Overtime has risen every year since the 2021 realignment of investigative authority between police and prosecutors, climbing from 59.8 hours in 2023 to 64.9 hours in 2024 and 67.8 hours last year.
By region, the Incheon Police Agency, which handles a large number of violent crime cases, recorded the most at 83 hours. The Gyeonggi North Police Agency followed at 80.6 hours and the Seoul Police Agency at 80.5 hours. The steepest increase came in Gangwon, where overtime rose about 10 hours, from 64.7 hours last year to 74.2 hours this year. Average overtime increased at 16 of the 19 agencies.
Police have moved to expand investigative staffing as officers increasingly avoid investigative assignments. The National Police Agency added 1,907 officers to investigative units between last year and the first half of this year, and plans to assign about 2,100 more in the second half. But most of the newly assigned personnel are being transferred from non-investigative units such as mobile squads, and analysts say it will take time before they can handle cases in practice.
Adding to the strain, some investigators at the superintendent and senior inspector ranks who were passed over for promotion see a move to the newly launched Serious Crime Investigation Agency as an opportunity, raising the prospect of further departures. Officers in the field worry about a cycle in which heavy workloads push investigators out, leaving those who remain with even more to do.
Within the police, there are calls for institutional measures to prevent investigative units from being overloaded. A senior officer serving in Seoul said: "There is pressure from outside and from inside to close cases quickly and move on to the next investigation, so working late has become a necessity rather than a choice." The officer added that improving the quality of investigations will require institutional support for training specialized investigators, better working conditions and an internal culture that eases the pressure to process cases quickly.