The police are government institution empowered to enforce the law, protect property and reduce civil disorder. Police, with job characteristics such as accountability, danger, urgency, and unexpected duties, perform a variety of functions to gain pub...
The police are government institution empowered to enforce the law, protect property and reduce civil disorder. Police, with job characteristics such as accountability, danger, urgency, and unexpected duties, perform a variety of functions to gain public security and order. However, the system of police pay does not reflect these job characteristics and lacks internal and external pay equity. And in reality, the salary level for police service is much lower than the general service and public security service, though they have lower level of difficulty and responsibility than police service.
Because the number of ranks with police's positions has one more than that of general and public security service's one, the police service is at a disadvantage in the promotion. Furthermore, it would take about double more time to promote from under class to middle manager than general service and public security service. This structural and chronic problems of police cause a personnel congestion & long-term average year required for promotion. And in the long term, the police service is paid much less salary in total than general and public security service.
Since 1969, the police service had taken its own salary regulation and there was not a big controversy over fairness with other public official. However, the salary regulation for police service was integrated and operated with the ones for general and public security service due to the integration of 「Government Employees` Salary Regulation」in 1982. As a result, constant problem has been brought up about compensating police service according to job specificity. Also as the same salary regulation was exercised for fire fighting service who has a big difference in task characteristics, it was refused by reason of fairness with fire fighting service whenever people raised the issue of police service's salary regulation. So measures to solve this problem are urgently needed.
The current「Government Officials Act」aims that the salary is set according to the level of responsibility and difficulty in task. However, the act goes against its purpose as it does combined operation on salary regulation for general service, public security service and police service though the task characteristic has much higher level of responsibility and difficulty. To improve the system of police pay, I suggests that government should establish salary regulation reflecting above problems; job specificity & peculiar hierarchical structure unlike other government officials. Hopefully the police service will serve to people and the nation with a big sense of duty through the rationalization of police compensation system.