A police investigation reform panel recommended that the National Police Agency hire more than 100 licensed lawyers a year as police officers over the next five years and assign them to investigative units. That is about double the number of lawyers the police currently recruit annually, and would add at least 500 legal experts to the force over five years if the recommendation is carried out.
The Police Investigation Reform Committee for Restoring Public Trust reviewed and approved its second set of recommendations, titled "Recommendations for Strengthening the Fairness and Capacity of Police Investigations," and announced 12 items on the 6th.
The committee called on the police to draw up a personnel plan to hire more than 100 lawyers a year as police officers over the next five years to raise the organization's legal capacity. The newly hired legal experts are to be assigned to investigative units at frontline police stations, including departments handling crimes against vulnerable groups such as women, young people and people with disabilities, and to take on investigations directly.
According to the committee, 311 officers currently hold a lawyer's license, less than 1% of the 38,250 police investigators nationwide. The committee concluded that expanding the pool of legal experts can no longer be delayed, since investigations are a specialized field that requires protecting suspects' rights while interpreting statutes precisely to make legal judgments on criminal allegations.
The panel said each of the country's 262 police stations needs at least two to four legal experts. The appropriate overall number of legal experts among police investigators should be calculated later through scientific job evaluations, it said, but hiring more than 100 a year should begin immediately to lift legal capacity in the field. "We already hire 50 to 60 people with lawyers' licenses every year," a committee official said. "The police have also said they can recruit about twice the current number."
Some committee members cautioned that hiring more lawyers would not automatically translate into stronger investigative capacity. The committee said legal training for all police investigators should be strengthened over the long term, and that newly hired legal experts should gain enough field investigation experience at frontline units.
The panel also recommended better conditions to keep existing investigators from leaving. It called for personnel and compensation policies, including special promotions, that would allow skilled investigators to serve in investigative units for long stretches. Skilled investigators should be assigned first to investigations of crimes against vulnerable groups, with systematic training and incentives such as special promotions, it said. "Unless conditions improve dramatically, it will be hard to keep capable investigators in the police," a committee official said.
The recommendations also included institutional changes to improve the fairness of investigations. Officers who are neither in charge of a case nor supervising it would be barred from making inquiries or requesting favors about it, and investigators who receive such requests would be required to report them. The committee called for tougher disciplinary action and penalties against officers who violate the rules.
Cases involving family members of police officers would be handled by a different police unit under a recusal system, and the committee asked the police to consider having another investigative agency take such cases over the longer term. Orders from supervisors on investigations would have to be issued only as electronic documents through the Korea Information System of Criminal Justice Services (KICS), and licensed lawyers would be appointed as "investigation review officers" to tighten legal and internal oversight of investigations.
The committee also recommended establishing a statutory basis for the Police Investigation Review Committee and making it up entirely of outside members. It proposed letting complainants check the progress of their cases online, and having non-investigative administrative staff handle the intake and registration of cases and documents to reduce investigators' paperwork.
The National Police Agency plans to accept the recommendations and report detailed implementation plans and timelines to the committee. It also plans to move on follow-up steps for other items the committee is still reviewing once those recommendations are finalized.
