Cases handled by the special judicial police of the Ministry of Intellectual Property are dragging on because of weak investigative capacity, yet the ministry has focused on expanding its headcount rather than its expertise.
The average investigation period for the entire special judicial police force stretched to 15.7 months as of August this year from 6.8 months in 2021, a roughly 2.3-fold increase, according to data obtained from the Ministry of Intellectual Property by the office of Rep. Yoon Han-hong of the People Power Party on the 29th. Investigation guidelines for the special judicial police require probes to be completed within two months, but cases are being delayed by staff shortages and increasingly complex investigations.
The ministry has added personnel to ease the delays, but specialists remain far too few. Of the 83 special judicial police officers, only four came from investigative agencies. The technology police unit more than doubled to 59 officers as of August this year from 26 last year, but not one of them came from an investigative agency.
Even with investigations stalling for lack of specialists, the ministry is concentrating on enlarging the special judicial police force. After the staff increase, it is in talks with the Ministry of Trade and Industry on expanding the technology police unit's investigative scope to crimes involving industrial technology, national core technology and national strategic advanced technology. Critics say gaps in responding to major crimes such as technology leaks could widen further once the prosecution's authority to direct investigations and order supplementary probes disappears with the abolition of the Prosecution Service in October.
"Before expanding the organization and its powers, the priority is to strengthen investigative expertise and put in place effective external oversight," Yoon said.
