A Study on the Operational Evaluation of the First Autonomous Police Commission and the Improvement of Legal System
Authors:   The Legal Studies Institute of Chosun University, Cho Byung No 
Published: May 2024

On January 1, 2021, the autonomous police system was implemented in Korea, and local autonomy was implemented in the field of security following general administration and education administration. In terms of decentralization, it was expected that the essential purpose of local autonomy would be realized by providing customized policing services based on the characteristics of the region and the will of the residents, and the democracy, decentralization and resident orientation of police activities would be strengthened.
In the second half of 2020, the unified autonomous police model bill was completely revised and enacted through a sudden policy change in the dualized autonomous police model, which was previously discussed, and the institutional basis was established with the leading role of the National Police Agency in the situation of lack of preparation period. In the meantime, the term of the first autonomous police commissioners, who have played a pivotal role in the settlement and development of the autonomous police system, has expired and is now preparing for the formation of a new second autonomous police committee.
At this point, it is expected that it will provide implications for the stable development of the autonomous police system as well as the preparation of the second autonomous police committee to clarify the current status of the autonomous police system and legal and institutional problems and to present concrete suggestions for future improvement directions.
In organizing this paper, I basically referred to various literature materials such as publication data, research papers and media reports of the National Police Agency and the municipal autonomous police committee. In order to grasp the reality of the operation of the system and to find out the effective improvement direction of the legal system, I also listened to the vivid opinions and suggestions for improvement through direct interviews with some autonomous police committee members and police related NGOs such as autonomous crime prevention groups.
Since the implementation of the autonomous police system, mutual cooperation between the city and provincial offices and the city and provincial police agencies has worked closely in the autonomous police affairs by securing the linkage between local administration and security administration centered on the autonomous police committees in cities and provinces across the country. Various policing policies have been established and implemented to reflect the will and participation of residents in the police administration and to provide policing services suitable for local specificity. The responsibility of the heads of local governments for local security has been increased by cities and provinces across the country, and the budget for projects needed to carry out local police affairs has also been increased.
However, despite many developments and achievements, there has been a constant need to supplement the essential limitations of the current autonomous police system, low awareness of the autonomous police, and the promotion of mutual cooperation with the autonomous police committee and the national police. More in-depth discussions are needed in that the introduction of the dualization model of the autonomous police and the financial burden of the state are related to the maintenance of security at the national level and the allocation of the national budget. It is hoped that the police system development committee under the Prime Minister's Office will make systematic and careful decisions based on national consensus and careful financial analysis and diagnosis so that the total amount of national security will not be damaged in the rapidly changing domestic and overseas security environment.