Police revise investigation rules as prosecutors' direct powers end

Police said Friday they revised their investigation rules to align with a revised Criminal Procedure Act that transferred investigation authority to judicial police officers and strengthened protections for crime victims, with the new procedures taking effect the same day.

The revision follows amendments that abolished prosecutors' direct investigative authority and their power to direct investigations, making judicial police officers the primary investigators. It also revises prosecutors' right to request supplementary investigations and reinvestigations.

The Korean National Police Agency set out procedures for judicial police officers to notify prosecutors of the results after carrying out a supplementary or reinvestigation request, and established forms for complainants or other parties to file objections to decisions not to refer a case. It also created forms for judicial police officers to request a prosecutor's opinion on legal judgments and the appropriateness of evidence collection, and for submitting opinions in writing before a prosecutor requests an arrest warrant. The rules also set out a form for requesting an extension of a supplementary investigation period, a form for stating reasons for failing to notify the results of a supplementary investigation, and a form for sending the comprehensive investigation results and case records to a prosecutor in advance.

Investigators must document in an investigation report the opinions a prosecutor has offered and whether those opinions were accepted, and file it with the case record.

The rules also add a form for reporting the detection of serious crimes to the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and a notice form for when a case is transferred to another investigative body. A separate form governs the processing of requests to exclude an investigator from duty or to discipline them when a supplementary investigation request is not carried out.

Separately, the rules replace references to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and district prosecutors' offices with the newly established Public Prosecutors' Offices and their branches, and change the National Police Agency's rule on the investigation of locations from "location investigation" to "location confirmation."

The revision also adds a form for a judicial police officer to submit an opinion in writing before a prosecutor requests an arrest warrant.