Police to Assign Only Outsiders as Heads of Audit and Inspection Departments at Provincial Agencies

Although the sense of responsibility for investigations has increased due to reforms in the criminal justice system, the police—embroiled in allegations of poor investigations and cover-ups, such as in the 'Jang Yunki case'—have announced a measure to assign only personnel from other regions to the audit and inspection duties at provincial and metropolitan police agencies.

The National Investigation Headquarters of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News

On August 12, the National Police Agency announced at the second meeting of its Criminal Procedure Act Amendment Task Force (TF) that, after reviewing public concerns over police investigations, it has decided to assign all personnel in charge of audit and inspection, specifically the audit and human rights officers at provincial and metropolitan police agencies, from regions outside the respective jurisdictions in the upcoming organizational reshuffle for the second half of the year.

In addition, as the workload is expected to increase due to factors such as the need to comply with requests for supplemental investigations from public prosecutors, the police have decided to strengthen investigative departments by assigning additional personnel on top of the 881 discussed at the previous meeting. Given the urgency of bolstering personnel before the enforcement of the revised law in October, human resources will be reorganized by prioritizing the deployment to investigative departments, especially from sectors where public safety will not be affected. Subsequently, the agency plans to coordinate with relevant ministries to discuss further staffing increases.

The National Police Agency plans to provide training on the amended Criminal Procedure Act to investigative department staff going forward. At the same time, it is considering establishing dedicated units at both the headquarters and local agencies to enhance compliance management and oversight for cases requested by prosecutors. It is expected that, following consultations with relevant ministries, these measures will be included in personnel changes in the second half of the year.

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