• List

Five Experts Voice Concerns Over New Criminal Justice System
Prosecution Service Abolition and Revised Criminal Procedure Act to Take Effect Oct. 2
Growing Concerns Over Inadequate Investigations and Cases Being Left Unresolved
Experts Divided Over Oversight Mechanisms and Direction of Reform

With the revised Criminal Procedure Act set to take effect in October, police will assume a central role in criminal investigations. As prosecutors will no longer be able to conduct supplementary investigations directly, the ability of police to carry out thorough initial investigations — along with effective safeguards against inadequate or incomplete investigations — has emerged as a key challenge for the successful implementation of the new system.

According to police and other officials on Sept. 22, the revised Criminal Procedure Act will take effect on Oct. 2, abolishing prosecutors’ authority to conduct direct investigations and direct supplementary investigations and restructuring the investigative system around judicial police officers.

If prosecutors determine that an investigation into a case referred by police is insufficient, they will be required to request supplementary investigation by the police. Police must complete the requested supplementary investigation within one month of receiving the request. The deadline may be extended by up to one additional month if there are reasonable grounds.

The central question is whether police, who handle the initial investigation of most crimes affecting ordinary citizens, will be able to bring investigations to a sufficiently thorough conclusion. The recent “Jang Yoon-gi case” has heightened concerns over whether police investigations alone can provide adequate scrutiny.

(Omitted)

① “Increasing Headcount and Handling Supplementary Investigations Are Two Different Matters”

Chon Hyeong hwan, an attorney at MegaX Law Office and a former police officer, identified the completeness and quality of police investigations as a decisive factor in determining whether the new system succeeds.

Police are significantly increasing investigative personnel, but much of the expansion is being carried out by reassigning existing officers to investigative divisions.

At a regular press briefing on Sept. 14, Acting Commissioner Kim commented on the repeated redeployment of personnel, saying, “Personally, I sometimes wonder whether we are trying to squeeze water from an already dry towel.” He added that police would “actively seek a net increase in personnel through consultations with the relevant government ministries.”

“The direction of separating investigation from prosecution is sound in itself, but for the system to function properly, police investigations must be capable of reaching a complete and reliable conclusion,” Chon said. “The direction has now been set. What remains is to ensure that level of investigative completeness.”

He stressed that simply increasing the number of investigators is a separate issue from securing personnel capable of handling complex and demanding cases.

“A significant portion of the latest personnel increase involves reallocating existing officers rather than creating new positions,” Chon said. “Officers assigned to investigative units for the first time can take considerable time even to prepare a single interrogation record.”

“Cases returned for supplementary investigation are generally more complex than ordinary cases. Understanding exactly what prosecutors are requesting and gathering the additional evidence needed to address those requests is work that cannot simply be measured by the number of cases handled,” he added.

“Meeting a numerical staffing target and having the capacity to handle supplementary investigations are two different matters,” Chon said. “The key question is whether measures such as extending the mandatory retirement period for officers at the superintendent level or expanding opportunities for special promotion can actually retain experienced investigators.”

The effectiveness of oversight mechanisms was also identified as a major challenge.

Under the revised Criminal Procedure Act, if police fail to comply with a request for supplementary investigation without legitimate grounds, the head of the Public Prosecution Office may request that the officer concerned be removed from duty or subjected to disciplinary action.

The revised law also provides a procedure under which supplementary investigation may be requested from a higher-level investigative unit or another investigative agency when it is deemed difficult to expect an appropriate supplementary investigation from the investigator or investigative office originally responsible for the case.

Commenting on these safeguards, Chon said, “The mechanisms may exist on paper, but they could end up lacking real teeth.”

“There needs to be an effective procedure that holds individual investigators accountable and allows outside parties to raise objections to delayed or inadequate investigations and, where necessary, seek the replacement of the investigator in charge,” he said.

(Omitted)

▼ For the full article, please see the link below.