대화경찰의 직무 환경에 관한 연구: 대화경찰관의 인식에 대한 질적 분석

Abstract

The dialogue police system has been operated since October 2018 with the aim of conducting safe and peaceful assembly demonstrations through direct engagement between dialogue police officers and protesters. In the past, conflicts and friction between the police and assembly protesters frequently occurred at the assembly site. To address this issue, the National Police Agency established the Korean Dialogue Police system by benchmarking the Swedish dialogue police system, focusing on human rights, safety, and communication in assembly protest policies. Currently, with safety and communication becoming the central paradigm in managing assembly demonstrations, the effectiveness of the dialogue police system and the corresponding strengthening of dialogue police officers' capacities are being emphasized. Previous studies on the Dialogue Police system have examined its effectiveness, assembly demonstration management policies, public perception, and job motivation. On the other hand, there is no research on the working conditions where dialogue police officers experience at assembly sites, or whether they face challenges such as communication issues with participants, difficulties in internal communication within the organization, or mental health concerns while performing their duties. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to apply Strauss and Corbin's (1998) grounded theory to understand the environmental characteristics experienced by dialogue police officers at assembly demonstrations. Data were collected from 27 dialogue police officers to identify the key characteristics of their work environment. As a result, 56 meaningful concepts were identified by consolidating overlapping content from 193 initial concepts. These were then grouped into 24 subcategories and 8 main categories. Following that, a paradigm model was developed to describe the characteristics of the work environment for dialogue police officers. The causal condition was defined as ‘the situation at the assembly site,’ while the contextual condition was ‘poor conditions at the assembly site.’ The central phenomena included ‘experiencing mental health difficulties’ and ‘facing challenges in performing duties.’ The mediating conditions were identified as ‘personal characteristics,’ ‘psychological focus,’ ‘problem-solving orientation,’ and ‘active efforts to improve job performance.’ The resulting outcome was a ‘change in attitude toward job commitment.’ Subsequently, the study found that dialogue police officers faced difficulties in communicating due to poor environmental conditions at the assembly site, individual psychological factors, and internal organizational challenges. This study has limitations as it relies on a qualitative approach based on the perspectives of dialogue police officers. Nevertheless, it is significant in that it identifies issues in the work environment of dialogue police officers and proposes potential solutions.