Asia-Pacific News
Punished police officers rise 60 per cent in Japan
Jan 27, 2011, 7:36 GMT
Tokyo - The number of Japanese police officers who faced disciplinary action increased to 385 in 2010, up 59.1 per cent from the previous year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
Forty-eight of the officers were sacked, the largest number since 2003, the agency said. One-fourth were dismissed because of drunken driving at a time when the nation was cracking down on the problem, it said.
A substantial rise was also seen in disciplinary action for officers in their 50s for 'inappropriate conduct' or disciplinary offenses with the number increasing twofold to 119, the Kyodo News agency reported.
While Japan is known as a safe country, police officers occasionally make the news for such incidents as groping and taking pictures up women's skirts with camera phones.
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