'We took out loans to buy homes' — police officers shave heads in fight against forced rotation policy

The National Police Workplace Council has escalated its opposition to the Korean National Police Agency's plan to expand mandatory rotation transfers, with members going so far as to shave their heads in a mass protest. The group demanded the policy be scrapped and a planned increase in internal affairs personnel be halted, warning that further head-shaving demonstrations and rallies would follow if their demands were not met.

The council and the Joint Struggle Committee Against Forced Rotation Transfers held a rally in front of the Korean National Police Agency in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, on Monday, calling for the withdrawal of the mandatory rotation policy. About 80 people attended, including representatives from police workplace councils and civil servant unions across the country.

In heat that felt like 34 degrees Celsius, participants wore black T-shirts reading "Oppose Forced Rotation Transfers" on the back, chanted "We are South Korea's No. 1 decorated police civil servants," and waved their commendation certificates in a coordinated performance.

Min Gwan-gi, chairman of the Joint Struggle Committee, said in his opening address that the forced rotation policy was "desk-bound administration that undermines the expertise and organizational stability of frontline policing." He said the policy "ignores the experience and expertise officers have built up with local communities and forces one-sided sacrifices on frontline police."

He added that officers whose family lives and livelihoods were being upended could not be expected to bear responsibility for public safety, and vowed that "the unilateral personnel policy destroying the frontline will be corrected."

In a letter of protest delivered to the Korean National Police Agency on Monday, the Joint Struggle Committee laid out five demands: the complete abolition of the forced rotation transfer system; withdrawal of the plan to expand internal affairs staffing; a formal apology to the country's 140,000 police officers; the public release of objective statistics on local collusion; and the holding of an official meeting with the committee.

The group said the agency was "treating all police officers like potential criminals because of the misconduct of a few individuals," and argued that "the Jang Yun-gi case is a matter of individual misconduct and internal management failure — not a problem with long-term postings in themselves."

The committee also said that "learning about policy through media reports, without any consultation with those directly affected, is a textbook example of closed-off administration," and urged the agency to immediately withdraw the plan to expand internal affairs personnel as a means of controlling the frontline.

At the rally, 10 officers shaved their heads one by one, and four more participants from the crowd joined in on the spot. Officers encouraged one another afterward, and one participant shouted, "Why do we have to go this far just to get attention? The Korean National Police Agency should talk to the frontline."

Kim Gap-bo, chairman of the workplace council at Geumsan Police Station in South Chungcheong Province, said after shaving his head that frontline officers understood the need for police reform, but insisted that "those who should be held accountable must be held accountable first, and the forced rotation transfers that punish officers protecting the frontline must stop immediately."

Toward the end of the rally, rank-and-file officers also took the floor. One officer who said he had worked in the investigations unit for 22 years said the agency was "labeling frontline officers as locally compromised simply because they have worked in investigations for a long time." A female investigator said she was anxious, adding, "I recently took out a loan to buy a home, and now talk of a forced transfer has me worried."

Committee chairman Min said that if the Korean National Police Agency did not present a revised policy proposal this week, the group would hold another rally next week and continue a relay of head-shaving protests. He said the committee was also considering stepping up the campaign in the fourth week, including returning appointment certificates.

He added that the group would "not back down until the forced rotation transfer policy is withdrawn," and that "if the Korean National Police Agency does not engage in dialogue with the frontline, we will keep expanding the scale of our rallies."