Collaboration plans among related organizations for efficient operation of the autonomous police system: Focusing on qualitative research in Gwangju Metropolitan City

The purpose of this study is to understand how the unitary autonomous police system operates in the field through qualitative research. The subjects of the qualitative research were 108 people including local council members, staff of the autonomous police committee, police officers of the autonomous police department of the provincial police agency, autonomous police officers at the police station level, members of civic groups, autonomous police committee working council, and autonomous police committee policy advisory group. The semi-structured questionnaire was used for individual and group interviews. The interview results showed that the immediate tasks of the unitary autonomous police system were active promotion and education. A significant number of research participants had insufficient understanding of the system and thus did not have sufficient capacity to lead the work. Efforts were required to resolve conflicts between related organizations that occurred in the early stages of the system implementation. Next, in order to secure cooperation between related organizations, the need to link local governments down to the basic level, share information, establish systems, and activate communication were categorized. Through the research results from the interviews, the current policy weaknesses of the unitary autonomous police system as well as its potential for development were understood. The research results may be continuously reviewed for better understanding of the system while the unified autonomous police system continues.