[2020 National Audit] Police Received 5,400 Requests to Avoid Investigators Over 3 Years... 64% Cite 'Doubt in Fairness'

Assemblyman Park Wanju National Audit Data
"Evidence That Police Trust Is Not High"

Park Wan-joo, member of the Democratic Party of Korea.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] Cases where parties involved in incidents file 'disqualification requests' doubting the impartiality of police investigators have been increasing every year.

According to the National Assembly audit data submitted by the National Police Agency to Park Wan-joo, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, from 2018 to August of this year, there have been a total of 5,467 cases where investigators were replaced through disqualification requests. By year, there were 1,715 cases in 2018, 2,129 cases in 2019, and 1,623 cases from January to August this year.

The most common reason for disqualification was 'doubt about impartiality,' accounting for 4,934 cases (64.6%). Park explained that the acceptance rate of investigator disqualification requests reaches 70%.

Disqualification requests can only be filed for complaints, accusations, petitions, appeals, reports, and traffic accident cases received by police stations. If the request is accepted, the police officer in charge of the case is replaced.

The reasons for disqualification include ▲cases that fall under grounds for exclusion ▲cases where there are objective and specific circumstances suggesting unfair investigation such as case solicitation, human rights violations, infringement of the right to defense, or neglect of the case, or concerns that unfair investigation may occur. Grounds for exclusion include ▲when the police officer is the victim ▲when the police officer is a relative or has had a familial relationship with the suspect or victim ▲when the police officer is the legal representative or guardian of the suspect or victim.

By regional police agency, the number of disqualification requests was highest in Seoul with 2,308 cases, followed by Gyeonggi Nambu with 1,001 cases, and Busan with 585 cases. Based on January to August this year, the regional police agency with the highest acceptance rate was Sejong, with 100% acceptance. This was followed by Daejeon at 91% and Gyeongnam at 87%. Conversely, Gangwon had the lowest acceptance rate at only 41%.

Park said, "The annual increase in investigator disqualification requests is evidence that trust in the police is still not high. Especially, the fact that 64.6% of disqualification requests are due to distrust in the fairness of investigations shows that the reliability of police investigations has not yet been secured."

Park added, "A concrete plan to secure the reliability of police investigations should be presented in connection with the independence of police investigative authority."

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