A heavier sentence was imposed at the appeals court for officers who abused their powers to check the CCTV when the female police officer they were dating had met with another police officer before dating.
Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 1 (Chief Judge Kim Cheong-mi) sentenced a 37-year-old A and 29-year-old B, a 37-year-old and 29-year-old police officer in Gangwon-do, charged with violating the Personal Information Protection Act and obstructing the exercise of the right to abuse of power, to a fine of 8 million won. He announced today (20th) that he was sentenced to six months in prison and one year of probation.
The two looked at CCTV at a building management office in August 2019 to check whether policewoman C was dating another police officer before she was dating woman A.
By presenting their police officer ID, they abused the authority of a police officer, the right to first responder.
After Mr. A and Mr. C broke up, Mr. B suspected that Mr. C was dating another fellow police officer, so on the evening of July 21, 2020, he wanted and checked the car parked near Mr. C's house.
Coincidentally, the next morning, Mr. A also had the same suspicion and conducted a wanted and resident inquiry for a car parked near Mr. C's house for personal purposes regardless of work.
Yeongwol Branch of the Chuncheon District Court, who was in charge of the first trial, imposed a fine, saying, "The degree of personal information infringement is relatively minor as it appears that the viewed CCTV video and the contents of wanted and resident inquiries were not distributed to anyone." I accepted the prosecution's claim that it was unfair,' and sentenced him to imprisonment but suspended the execution of the sentence.
The court pointed out, "The right to conduct an initial investigation or the right to make a wish and inquiry of the residents is a power that comes with a high degree of responsibility."
He continued, "The defendants' actions violate the public's trust in police officers who have been given great authority and responsibility, and the guilt is heavy. “He explained the reason for the sentencing.
On the other hand, Mr. C, who suffered such an incident, posted a message on the police internal network in March last year to the effect of making an extreme choice and complained of extreme mental pain.
Persons A and B were also handed over to the Police Disciplinary Committee and were given severe disciplinary measures such as dismissal and demotion, respectively.
Including two people, 10 out of a total of 12 police officers who sexually harassed or secondarily assaulted Mr. C received severe or light disciplinary action.
(Photo = provided by Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)