[One Year Since the Launch of Guksubon③] Staffing Expansion, New Crime Response, and System Reform... Numerous Pending Challenges

Immediate Large Increase in Manpower and Budget Difficult
Response Needed Through Task Allocation and Organizational Restructuring
Attention to New Crimes and Crimes Related to Two Major Elections
Future of Police's Long-Standing Demand for 'Warrant Request Authority'

National Investigation Headquarters. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The National Investigation Headquarters (NIH) of the National Police Agency, which marked its first anniversary since its launch, faces numerous challenges ahead. It must create conditions that reduce the burden on frontline investigators to enable better accountable investigations and develop expertise to respond to rapidly evolving crimes. Furthermore, through reforms in investigation-related laws and systems, it must transform into an organization trusted by the public. Each of these tasks is far from easy.

Increasing Workload Necessitates Reinforcement of Personnel

The most urgent issue to address is the increase in investigative police personnel. As the workload of investigators intensifies, it inevitably affects the completeness of investigations. The NIH has sought ways to alleviate burdens through personnel reinforcement and redeployment, distribution of practical investigation guidelines, and other measures, but it is difficult to significantly increase personnel and budget immediately. The police plan to first expand investigative police personnel by 433 this year and consider the necessity of organizational diagnosis and investigation system reform, such as whether current task assignments are properly managed, to utilize field personnel efficiently.

Police duties are continuously expanding. Reforming personnel, organization, and budget to reflect this is essential. An NIH official said, "For example, following the revision of the Military Court Act in July this year, death cases and sexual violence incidents occurring within the military will be handled by the police," adding, "As investigative police duties increase, we will carefully review personnel matters." Securing competent personnel will also be a key factor going forward. The NIH plans to establish systems that attract young and promising new officers to investigative police by enhancing the pride of investigative police through measures such as qualification systems for investigators.

Responding to New Types of Crime... Focus on Two Major Elections

Responding to new types of crime brought about by rapid technological advances is also a challenge for the NIH. Representative examples include voice phishing, which continuously evolves in methods, various financial crimes involving virtual assets, crimes using the dark web, and drug crimes linked to overseas criminal organizations. The NIH plans to expand systems and equipment supporting investigations, such as building a next-generation forensic science platform and expanding investigative data analysis systems. Establishing a focused response system for fraud crimes, which have become the "largest crime," and closely responding to newly added police investigation areas such as major disaster crimes and sexual violence within the military are also necessary.

The two major elections this year?the presidential election in March and the local elections in June?also weigh heavily on the NIH. It must perform the role of detecting election-related crimes to ensure clean elections while maintaining political neutrality and fairness. In particular, since the statute of limitations for violations of the Public Official Election Act is only six months, swift and accurate investigations are required.

Will the Police Secure the Right to Request Search Warrants for Property?

One of the longstanding tasks for the police is securing the right to request warrants. Since the NIH was launched, the rate of non-issuance of warrants requested by the police has slightly decreased. In 2020, the police requested 26,218 warrants and received 18,333 (69.9%) issued, while last year, after the NIH's launch, 21,535 warrants were requested and 15,557 (72.2%) were issued. The higher issuance rate is analyzed to reflect some strengthening of investigative capabilities.

However, since the current constitution specifies that the right to request warrants belongs to prosecutors, this issue has not been properly discussed even during the phase of adjusting investigative authority. The police maintain the position that, even if not for personal warrants, they should at least have the authority to directly request property warrants to conduct investigations smoothly. An NIH official said, "Basically, since this is a constitutional matter related to the right to request warrants, the most ideal procedure is to newly discuss how investigative agencies will request warrants, assuming constitutional amendment first," adding, "there is growing interest and opinions from academia and the field about what measures might be possible before a constitutional amendment."

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