Analyses of Changes in Police Organizations from the New Institutional Perspective

Abstract

In order to examine the change of the police organization in Korea, we analyzed the factors that influenced the change of the system by dividing it into the structural context, the institutional context, and the actor context from the historical institutionalist integrated perspective. Based on the rapid enactment of the police, the analysis was conducted from the U.S. Military Government Department of Police Affairs to the current National Police Agency where the autonomous police system is being implemented. From 1945 to 1948, in a short period of three years, it changed from the US Military Government Department of Police Affairs to the Ministry of Police Affairs, and after the establishment of the government, the police organization changed to the Security Bureau. It can be seen as a result of reflecting the chaotic situation of the times after the Japanese colonial period, and the change of the police organization in this period is a result of reflecting the policies and ideologies of the US military government that wants South Korea's rapid stability and recovery. The change of the police organization from the police station to the police station was influenced by the structural context and institutional context such as political ideology, anti-communism, economic factors, and war. The change from the Security Bureau to the Security Headquarters was a historical inflection point in 1974, and the political element of the military regime continued and the anti-communist ideology emphasized economic development and did not lead to substantial institutional change. In 1991, the security headquarters changed to the National Police Agency, and the police committee was established in 1987 when the democratization movement became a historical inflection point. It is noteworthy that there was a change in the democratic police system and the influence of actors who wanted to neutralize the police. The autonomous police system was implemented in 2021 while maintaining the organization of the police agency. The historical inflection point of the change of the autonomous police system was the reform of the power institutions such as the prosecution, and the democratic ideology of the local autonomy and decentralization in the institutional context and the elements of the actor context did not affect the institutional change. The change of the police organization after the police bureau was found to be strongly influenced by the political elements of the structural context. In the future, the change of the police organization, such as the development of the autonomous police system, should reflect the institutional context such as the democratic ideology and the context of the actors such as citizens and frontline police officers.