Concealed Police Scandals

Using disclosure system for official documents, Mainichi Shimbun revealed various aspects of potential crimes by policemen or women. Based on the data of disciplinary punishments in police organization, 99 out of 293 police persons all over Japan were not announced to the public, despite their commitment could be regarded as crime including theft or coerced obscenity. Police did not recognize a concept that activities of police organization required extremely high transparency.

Disciplinary punishment for police person is categorized in four kinds: dismissal, suspension, salary reduction and reprimand. National Police Agency determines in its guidance for announcing disciplinary punishment that it should be made open to the public, if the case related to official duty, were private activity that worth suspension or necessary to be revealed regarding social impact and need for maintaining credibility for police authority. Whether or not to announce the cases to the public is decided on those standards in the guidance.

According to the research of Mainichi, punishments for 151 police persons out of all 293 disciplinary cases last year were not announced to the press, being decided not to be announced. However, 99 persons could be suspected as committing some kinds of illegal activities.

Here are some examples. A captain of Osaka Prefectural Police injured his subordinate by flinging a dish in their meeting with drinking alcohol in March last year. In April, a patrolling director of Imperial Guard Police made insult to a woman on a train, which caused her uneasy feeling. In November, a patrolman of Saitama Prefectural Police stole a credit card of his colleague and purchased ticket of bullet train. A patrolman of Fukuoka Prefectural Police shoplifted grocery foods and canned beer in a supermarket in December. Those cases were concealed by police organization.

42 prefectural governments have a code for announcing every public workers’ disciplinary punishment that worth reprimand. Japan Self-defense Force basically opens all cases of disciplinary punishment of its personnel. But, some local police organizations were not conscious for need of transparency of the activities of police persons, who had authority of investigation or arrest.

Concealing information about crime by policemen/women can violate human rights to know about governmental activities. There have been many cases that police organizations caused scandals such as pooling secret money or underground connection to anti-social groups. They should realize that disclosure is the fastest way to credibility for police.