Showing progress in efforts to improve the image of police tarnished by misconduct in recent years, the number of officers and staff who were disciplined decreased by 89 on year to 300 in 2014 in a second consecutive year of decline, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

The latest figure represents the third-lowest in a period from 2000, the earliest year such statistics remain on record, the agency said.

According to the agency, the decrease is most prominent in the number of sexual harrassment, down by 28 to 14, and "forgeries or destruction of public documents, or destruction of evidence" cases, which totaled 37, down by 10 from a year before.