While the regular cop in his koban substation on your local street corner seems like a friendly and useful member of the community (and for the most part, is), police officers are human beings, and so subject to temptation like the rest of us.
According to a report in the Yomiuri Shimbun, the National Police Agency announced on February 5 that the number of police officers and staff members nationwide who received disciplinary action last year rose to 337, an increase of 98 from the previous year, and the highest number in the past 10 years.
Of the 337 officers, 44 were dismissed, 97 were suspended, and 144 received pay cuts. By age, 194 were under 30, accounting for over half. A total of 64 officers were arrested, an increase of seven from the previous year.
The most common reason for disciplinary action was “sexual relations,” including sexual harassment and voyeurism (strictly speaking, tosatsu — or sneak photography like up-skirting). Such issues resulted in disciplinary action against 104 officers.
This was followed by 63 officers disciplined for theft, fraud, and embezzlement. A further 44 were disciplined for abandoning duties and slacking off, such as messing around on a smartphone while on duty. In addition, 31 were charged with other violations of laws and regulations, such as gambling at online casinos.
The worst bad apples was Hyogo Prefectural Police, which disciplined nine officers in December for gambling at online casinos, and had the highest number of disciplinary actions nationwide, with 50 cases.
Hyogo was following in the “bad apple rankings” by Kanagawa Prefectural Police, with 34 cases, including a scandal surrounding a stalking incident that resulted in the murder of a woman in Kawasaki.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was next with 30 cases, and then Osaka Prefectural Police with 26 (presumably including the officer arrested for sexual assault against a minor). Fukuoka Prefectural Police had a mere 18 cases, meaning they have some catching up to do.
The National Police Agency offered this excuse: “There are a noticeable number of cases of young officers playing with their smartphones. We take this seriously and will strengthen our guidance.”
Of course, that might help stop cops from playing on their phones while on duty, but what about the officers sneaking photos of girls or harassing women? And what about all those cases of koban hank-panky?
Still, most of these cops are mere amateurs when it comes to really exploiting their position for sexual purposes. Remember last year’s shocking story about the senior officer in Wakayama, who was getting freebies at a local soapland for a whopping eight years?
