 Justice Minister Lee Kwi-nam, left, and National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Hyun-oh participate in a special committee at the National Assembly, Monday, to report their compromise on the criminal investigation rights issue to lawmakers. / Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun |
Police granted partial autonomy in opening criminal investigations
By Kim Tae-jong
The National Assembly Judiciary Committee approved a bill to revise a law to allow police to initiate investigations of certain crimes independent of the prosecution.
The committee’s passage came after the prosecution and police accepted government mediation on the criminal investigation rights issue to end a long-standing dispute, at the eleventh-hour.
According to a compromise put forward by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), both parties agreed to the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The agreement came just hours before a deadline for the submission of the revision bill to the committee.
The two sides had been struggling to narrow their differences, and the government had been trying to mediate since May 30 but it was only when the presidential office joined the mediation Monday that the compromise was struck.
The revision includes granting police partial rights to open criminal investigations into suspects where there is de facto evidence independently of the prosecution.
Currently, only prosecutors have the mandate to launch, supervise and complete investigations and then to indict suspects.
The revision also reflects the prosecution’s position by including articles reinforcing its supervisory rights and stating that police should follow prosecutors’ orders when necessary.
The officials at the PMO said the final recommendation focused on the mechanism of “checks and balances.”
“We tried to allow police the legal grounds to initiate independent investigations with the prosecution maintaining its authority to supervise,” Rim Chae-min, chief of staff to the PMO, said during a news briefing.
But Rim denied speculation that they had discussed exceptions of specific cases into which the police cannot initiate investigation such as violations of the Election and National Security Laws.
The friction between police and the prosecution over criminal investigation rights has been long-standing.
The former has long called for the right to initiate and proceed with investigations as well as for the abolishment of a clause obliging them to follow the instructions of prosecutors. On the other hand, the prosecution has opposed police demands, arguing that sharing the rights over investigations would compromise its ability to supervise inquiries.
Overall, prosecutors welcomed the revision of the law but took a careful stance on its application.
“There is a possibility of abuse of authority by the police,” a prosecutor said. “So, it is important how to apply the law to supervise them.”
Police were also generally satisfied with the revision, which specifies their rights for independent investigation, but many officers expressed their disappointment, saying nothing much has been changed under the condition of “prosecutors’ supervision.”
“It’s meaningless as we are not allowed much autonomy if prosecutors can keep ordering what we should do,” one officer said.
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