If Accused or Reported, Initially Considered a Suspect... Police 'Selective Booking' Remains Unchanged

by Cho Seongpill

Published 29 Aug.2022 20:00(KST)

Seodaemun-gu, Seoul Police Agency building. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] After finishing your daily routine, you entrust your tired body to the subway on your way home. You only remember falling asleep due to overwhelming fatigue. However, a few days after returning home, you receive a call from the police informing you that you have been accused of sexual harassment in a crowded public place. It is not something to dismiss with a snort, saying, "That couldn't have happened. There must be some mistake." Once you have been accused or reported, your status is already that of a 'suspect.'

According to the police on the 29th, under the current police criminal system, if you are accused or reported, you are registered as a suspect as soon as the case is received. If you are registered as a suspect, you must undergo police investigation regarding the criminal charges. Although the police may dismiss the case after confirming and obtaining consent from the complainant (accuser), if you are accused of sexual harassment on the subway like this, registration as a suspect is inevitable. Ultimately, the accused must prove their innocence, that is, the absence of charges. From the perspective of the accused, this means bearing the burden of having to appear at the investigating agency due to an unjust accusation.

Investigative agencies do not always welcome such accusations and reports. The number of accusations and reports received by the police averages 400,000 cases annually. Among these, there have been many cases where innocent ordinary citizens were registered as suspects and investigated solely based on accusations and reports, despite having no criminal charges. In fact, from 2016 until 2020, before the adjustment of investigative authority between prosecutors and police, the average prosecution referral rate for accusations and reports received by the police over five years was only 29%. Naturally, side effects such as the dispersion of investigative resources emerged. It even caused the problem of 'criminalization of civil cases,' where criminal accusations are used for evidence collection in civil lawsuits.

Since last year, the police have been working on measures to prevent victims from suffering due to the abuse of accusations and reports. Judging that the current system, where registration as a suspect is almost automatic upon being accused or reported, is unreasonable, they have promoted a 'selective registration' system that registers only those with actual charges. To this end, this year they have drawn up a blueprint to actively support legislative activities for establishing legal grounds for selective registration of accusations and reports and expanding the criminal mediation system.

However, it appears that this plan has made little progress. This reality is clearly revealed even in the working-level meetings of the police-prosecutor consultative body, which discuss measures to mitigate side effects from the adjustment of investigative authority and follow-up measures to the 'Complete Prosecution Reform Act.' An official from the investigative authorities said, "Unlike the current practice of dismissing cases with the complainant's consent, selective registration is a system where even if an accusation or report is accepted, the investigative agency registers a suspect only if it judges that there is a criminal charge," adding, "I understand that within the police-prosecutor consultative body, there is rather an opinion of 'let's accept all cases first without dismissal.'"

The police expect that if selective registration of accusations and reports is promoted, the indiscriminate practice of registering suspects will improve significantly, enhancing the rights and interests of the public. To this end, they plan to continuously appeal to the National Assembly and the Ministry of Justice about the necessity of introducing selective registration during future discussions on related laws such as the Criminal Procedure Act. They also plan to focus on forming social consensus, as there are diverse opinions from various sectors of society.