South Korea's police are entering an "emergency response mode" a day before a new criminal justice system takes effect. Front-line police station chiefs will check the status of major cases and cases requested by prosecutors every day, under an overlapping review system that extends up to provincial police agencies and the National Office of Investigation. For serious investigative misconduct such as fabricating or concealing cases or taking bribes, the police will apply dismissal and removal from office as the default disciplinary action.
The Korean National Police Agency said it will hold a "National Police Investigative Command Meeting" on the afternoon of the 1st at its headquarters in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, with Acting Commissioner General Kim Jong-cheol; the chief of the National Office of Investigation; provincial police agency deputy chiefs and investigation bureau chiefs; and senior superintendent-level division chiefs and police station chiefs in attendance. The meeting was arranged to minimize confusion in the field and to strengthen the accountability and fairness of police investigations as the criminal justice system separates investigation from prosecution.
"Tomorrow our criminal justice system faces its biggest transformation in 78 years," Kim said. "Investigation and prosecution are being separated, and police have been given the weighty duty of protecting the rights and interests of the public even more firmly."
"From today, police declare a shift to an 'emergency response mode' until the new system takes full root in the field," he said. "To ensure that not a single person is wronged and not even a small gap opens up, we will conduct overlapping reviews of case handling from front-line stations to provincial agencies and headquarters, and correct problems immediately."
Each police station chief will check daily the handling of major cases and cases requested by prosecutors. Provincial police agencies and the National Office of Investigation will then review them again, creating a multi-layered review system to respond to confusion that may arise in the early stages of the new system. The police agency also plans to prevent cases from being handled differently depending on the station or the investigator in charge.
Kim said he would make "protection of crime victims" the first principle of investigations. "Along with uncovering the substantive truth, police will redefine the paradigm of police investigations with the protection of crime victims as the first principle of investigation," he said. "From the moment a report is received to the moment a case is closed, the question police ask themselves will be about the victim's safety, and the eyes of the police will always be on the victim."
Police will also strengthen victim protection so that repeated warning signs in cases such as stalking, dating violence and child abuse do not lead to violent crime. Procedures for protecting victims' rights will be reinforced throughout the investigation, from the filing of complaints to questioning and follow-up measures, and notifications about case progress and closure will be made more substantive. Online notifications will also be expanded so that victims can check the status of their cases directly and exercise their rights.
Kim signaled tough sanctions for corruption and wrongdoing in the investigative process. "For serious misconduct such as corruption, fabricating or concealing cases, and covering for our own, we will hold officers to account more strictly, with removal from the force as the default discipline," he said. The police agency plans to strengthen internal and external oversight of investigations by rigorously investigating serious misconduct that affects the substance of a case, while applying dismissal and removal from office as the default disciplinary action.
Kim also promised support for front-line investigators. "We will make sure that expertise built up in investigative units is properly recognized and that the longer officers devote themselves, the more rewarding they find it," he said. "Commanders will always stand alongside investigators facing difficult judgment calls." Police said they have added about 4,000 front-line investigators since the current government took office.
He also warned against agencies shifting responsibility onto one another in the early stages of the new system. "Whether the new criminal justice system takes hold depends on the field," Kim said. "Confusion and difficulties encountered in the field in the early days of the new system must be handled and corrected directly by police station chiefs." He added: "There must be no cases where relief for victims' rights is delayed by so-called 'case ping-pong,' and front-line commanders must make sure that the shoddy or unfair investigations the public worries about find no foothold in the police."
On the morning of the 2nd, the police agency also plans to hold meetings of investigative unit heads from provincial agencies and police stations, chaired by the chiefs of the country's 18 provincial police agencies, to share response measures under the new criminal justice system.
