SEOUL — Later this month, the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency will distribute 6,000 copies of a guide telling its officers how to respond to crimes committed by U.S. sailors, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

The four-page booklet — roughly 3 by 4 inches in size — is similar to a Korean National Police regulation book for dealing with U.S. Status of Forces Agreement personnel, but is small enough for officers to carry while on patrol, said police spokesman Sgt. Lee Dong-ju.

The booklet includes phone numbers for U.S. military and South Korean police investigators, and instructions on how to investigate possible crime scenes, he said. It also outlines detention procedures for servicemembers suspected of committing serious crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping and drug-related offenses.

Lee said the police agency is distributing the booklet at the suggestion of Busan’s police commissioner because more U.S. sailors are coming there, not because of a specific incident.

Sailors usually behave themselves during their standard three-day port visits, he said.

The manual will help police deal with SOFA cases “swiftly and fairly, if such cases happen,” he said.

Commander Naval Forces Korea has not been contacted about the manual, spokeswoman Lt. Pam Bou said Tuesday.

Lee said an increasing number of U.S. aircraft carriers and ships are docking in Busan since South Korea moved a naval operations commander there from Chinhae in December. Last year, five U.S. aircraft carriers docked there, bringing nearly 11,400 sailors to the country’s second-largest city, located on its southeast coast. In 2008, four U.S. warships and nearly 9,000 sailors have come to Busan so far.

A crew member of the submarine USS Chicago was accused in November of crashing a stolen vehicle in Chinhae while drunk, but no other visiting U.S. sailors have gotten into legal trouble in South Korea in recent years. South Korean legal officials expedited the case, letting the sailor pay more than $10,000 in restitution instead of facing a possible legal trial.

Lee said he hopes the booklet will be a model for police departments in other South Korean cities where U.S. troops are stationed.