Human Rights Commission: "Warrantless Home Searches... Human Rights Violation Without Resident Consent"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission has ruled that law enforcement agencies forcibly searching a residence without a warrant or the resident's consent constitutes a human rights violation.

On the 9th, the Human Rights Commission announced that it recommended the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency to establish procedures ensuring that police officers obtain clear consent from residents and provide evidence of such consent when conducting investigations at residences without a warrant. It also recommended that the chief of A Police Station conduct job training for staff regarding search activities.

Previously, the Human Rights Commission received a complaint alleging that police officers who responded to reports of "retaliatory noise" searched the complainant's residence without consent. The responding officers claimed, "We judged the location to be a likely source of the retaliatory noise and conducted a search with the resident's consent to verify the situation on site."

The Human Rights Commission determined that the officers' entry into another person's residence without a warrant to identify the source of the noise could not be considered an exception to the warrant requirement under the Criminal Procedure Act. Furthermore, it found no evidence to support the officers' claim that they obtained clear consent from the resident.

The Commission stated, "The police officers' search of the residence violated the principle of due process, infringing upon the constitutionally guaranteed freedom and tranquility of the residence," and added, "Forced entry should be conducted only with the resident's clear consent, and separate procedures must be established to prove this consent."

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