After the abolition of the Prosecutor's Office, the police atmosphere is 'calm before the storm'... Prospects for competition in large-scale investigations

Front-line police stations are “concerned about workload overload due to the influx of cases” and “it will take a month or two”

Due to a manpower shortage for investigators, “If cases flood in without people, poor investigations will break out again.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporters Jeon Jae-hoon, Lee Eui-jin, Yang Su-yeon, and Yoon Min-hyuk = A week has passed since the Prosecutor's Office was abolished for the first time in 78 years, and there is a mixture of reactions among front-line police officers that "there is no big change right now" and anxiety that "cases will soon flood in."

According to Yonhap News coverage on the 11th, the cases being investigated by the prosecution, which closed on the 2nd, have not yet been transferred to front-line police stations in earnest.

Contrary to existing concerns that a 'tsunami of cases' would come to the police with the reform of the criminal justice system, the general assessment within the police is that so far it is close to the 'calm before the storm'.

A police officer from a metropolitan investigation team said, “The number of cases assigned right away has not increased significantly,” and “I have not noticed any significant changes since the revision of the Criminal Justice Act.”

The head of the investigation department at the Seoul police station said, “There are only a few cases (from the Public Prosecution Office) that have requested supplementary investigation,” and “We will only be able to know (changes in work) after a month or two.”

A police chief in Seoul also said, "I have checked with each department several times since the investigation system was reorganized, but nothing has changed much from usual. Contrary to concerns that confusion would arise as a large number of cases are transferred, there is no change that can be felt."

In fact, the National Police Agency has not yet received any reports from local police agencies to the effect that cases are being transferred excessively.

The National Police Agency, concerned about the workload of front-line police stations, requested the prosecution to 'handle cases sequentially rather than all at once' ahead of the launch of the Public Prosecution Office, and 'for prosecutors from the Public Prosecution Office to handle as many cases as possible within the 90-day period.'

An official at the National Police Agency explained, "The prosecution accepted the proposal at the time," and added, "If too many cases are transferred at once, we plan to consult with the Public Prosecution Office again at that time."

According to the main office of the Public Prosecution Service, as of the end of September, there were 186,307 outstanding cases in public prosecution offices nationwide.

Among these, the Public Prosecution Office is first handing over 100 cases that prosecutors were directly aware of and investigating to the police that they judged would be difficult to close within a 90-day period.

In addition, among the cases that the police investigated and forwarded to the prosecution (currently the Public Prosecution Office), cases for which no indictment or other disposition has been made will also be handed over to the police in the form of a request for supplementary investigation.

There are also indications that greater confusion is being felt in the Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Office, which took the first step.

Another police officer from the metropolitan investigation team said, “It seems that prosecutors who have started work in a new organization are experiencing greater confusion than the police, saying, ‘We don’t know when and where to move to.’” He added, “The police are still in the calm before the storm stage.”

Unlike the metropolitan investigation teams at city/municipal offices that mainly handle large-scale cases, there are concerns about the influx of investigative work in the future at front-line police stations that are relatively short of investigative manpower.

A police officer at the police level predicted, “The burden of work overload will be greater in the investigation department of the front-line police station, which is mainly staffed by people with relatively little investigative experience and less seniority.”

Another front-line police station official said, “It is a long-standing problem that cases are piling up without anyone to investigate,” and emphasized that incentives should be created for police officers to support investigative work.

One investigator expressed concern, “If cases pile up even though no one is present, the problem of poor investigation may arise again.”

Some predict that with the Central Investigation Agency on the loose, the police will engage in a scramble to dominate the investigation of major major cases.

In fact, the Cyber ​​Terror Investigation Unit of the National Police Agency immediately began a pre-booking investigation (internal investigation) when an artificial intelligence (AI) hacking attack targeting a major domestic commercial bank occurred on the first day of the launch of the Central Investigation Agency, and has since increased the size of the dedicated investigation team to 43, engaging in a 'speed war'.

Hacking incident investigation is an area in which the police have accumulated know-how over a long period of time based on a dedicated organization and professional personnel. There is also a sense that this is an opportunity to prove one's investigative capabilities.

A former police lawyer predicted, “With the prosecution, which was investigating cases frequently exposed to the media, disappearing, competition between investigative agencies may begin for leadership in investigating large-scale cases,” and added, “The metropolitan investigation team, called the police’s special department, may become busier.”