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Case concerning a police investigation during the class [2008] KRNHRC 23 (1 May 2008)

In May 2008, four civic groups in the Jeonbuk region including the Jeonbuk Chapter of
the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union, the National Association of Parents
for True Education, the Jeonbuk Education Alliance, and the Jeonbuk Alliance for Peace
and Human Rights filed a complaint that the police violated the human rights of a student,
who registered planned demonstrations with the police, by investigating the student during
class and posting a document containing personal information of the student's name,
school, and address on its website after the media covered the police investigation.

After an investigation, the Commission found that Shim, a third-grade high school
student, visited the police station twice to submit a legitimate report on planned
demonstrations against the importation of American beef in May 2008. The police ordered
its officers to investigate the organization planning to hold the demonstrations and the
student. A police officer visited Shim's school, after obtaining approval from the Assistant
Principal of the high school in advance. The police officer investigated the student, who
was in class at the time, about why the student reported the planned demonstrations and
who would organize the demonstrations, with the cooperation from the Assistant Principal,
the teacher in charge of student discipline, and the homeroom teacher, and reported the
address, occupation, and mobile phone numbers of the student's parents to the police. As
the media covered the incident, the police posted an explanation, which specified the name,
age, school, and address of the student, on it's website.

The Commission found that the police investigation of the student during the class was
not a legitimate act to collect security information in line with the Act on the Duties of
Police Officers, but an abuse of power to violate the Principle of Legitimate Purposes, the
Principle of Appropriate Means, the Principle of Minimum Use of Force, the Principle of
Balance of Interests, and the Principle of Proportionality. It concluded that the police
violated the Police Principle of Proportionality stipulated in the Act on the Duties of Police
Officers and the Police Act, the freedom of assembly, the right to control information
about oneself, and the right to privacy protected by the Constitution, the responsibilities to
protect human rights stated in the Rules on the Duties of Police Officers, and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Commission discovered that the police violated the right to privacy and the right to
control information about oneself in the Constitution by posting Shim's personal
information on its website, and that the damage incurred from disclosing the information
would not be repaired, even though the information disclosure was a mere mistake made
by a working-level policeman. It viewed that the police should be held accountable,
considering the serious psychological damage Shim suffered as a student.

Taking the above findings into consideration, the Commission recommended that the
Commissioner General of the Korea National Police Agency and the Commissioner
General of the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency re-examine the principles, limits, and
scope in relation to information collection activities of the police officers, take measures to
prevent recurrence of similar incidents, give a written warning the chief of the police
station concerned, take disciplinary actions against five police officers concerned, and
provide human rights education to police officers in order to prevent recurrence of similar
incidents.