Police-Reported Cases to Be Expanded Nationwide with 'Random Assignment' System

"Establishing Responsible Investigation, Enhancing Fairness and Transparency in Investigations"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The police will expand the implementation of 'random case assignment' to police stations nationwide to establish responsible investigations and enhance the fairness and transparency of investigations.

The National Police Agency announced on the 18th that it will fully enforce the 'Guidelines on Case Assignment' based on this content.

Until now, cases received at police stations were assigned to investigation teams in order of arrival or by designating a consultation team for the day. However, there were concerns that the department or team handling the case could be predicted at the reception stage.

Accordingly, since December last year, the police conducted a pilot operation of random case assignment at 10 police stations under the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, and after gathering opinions from field investigators and discussions with related departments, they decided to implement it fully.

Therefore, when a case is received at a police station, the head of each investigative department will review the records as the 'person responsible for case assignment' and assign the case to a department or team either by random assignment or designated assignment depending on the nature of the case.

Random assignment is conducted through a program to exclude arbitrariness, and if the random assignment method is deemed inappropriate, the reason must be recorded before assigning the case to a specific department or team.

Furthermore, if there is a reason to change the investigation team during the case process, the case must be immediately reassigned to another team, and the reason must be recorded.

The National Police Agency stated, "By operating the case reception and assignment procedures, which are the first steps of investigation, more transparently and fairly, we will establish internal control mechanisms throughout the entire investigation process and realize 'responsible police investigations.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.