Editorials
Police failures expose flaws in prosecution reform
Botched cases in Jeju and Gwangju expose the risks of expanding police investigative powers without adequate oversight.
The Jeju Seobu Police Station in Aewol, Jeju City, on Aug. 25. The National Police Agency said the same day that it relieved four senior officers, including the station chief, of their duties over supervisory responsibility for the false closure of the missing persons case involving a woman named Jang Mi-ran.
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A series of cases revealing serious police incompetence and the irresponsible handling of investigations has shocked the public. In Jeju, an officer falsely closed missing persons cases after claiming he had contacted those reported missing, only for the bodies to be discovered. In Gwangju, public anger erupted over a high school girl’s murder amid allegations of a flawed police investigation and organized destruction of evidence.
The cases have exposed woefully inadequate police capabilities and lax internal discipline at an institution responsible for protecting lives and public safety.
Only after serious consequences, including deaths, emerged have the government and ruling party begun talking about police reform. At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung said the police “appear likely to exercise the greatest power among state institutions” and ordered the prime minister’s office to establish a police reform body. The Democratic Party (DP) hastily launched its own police reform task force.
Yet it was the government and ruling party that pushed through the complete removal of prosecutorial investigative authority without first verifying police capabilities or establishing adequate safeguards. Now demanding reform because of police incompetence and lax discipline puts the process entirely backward.
The outcome was largely foreseeable. The DP ignored concerns and opposition from legal experts, academics and civic groups and unilaterally pushed through revisions to the Criminal Procedure Act stripping prosecutors of investigative authority.
The changes handed investigations to police while eliminating even prosecutors’ authority to conduct supplementary investigations, removing a mechanism that could check abuses of police power and correct inadequate investigations. Warnings that vulnerable people would ultimately suffer were disregarded. The flawed police investigations now coming to light are consequences of legislation pushed through without sufficient preparation.
What the public wants is not institutional change driven by political objectives but the ability to live safely, protected from crime.
The chief of the Jeju Seobu Police Station and other officers have been relieved of their duties over the false closure of a missing persons case. But accountability cannot stop with disciplining a police chief.
The government and ruling party must examine the consequences of restructuring the criminal justice system before police assume their expanded responsibilities. There is still time before the new system fully takes effect. They should pursue substantive corrective legislation, including restoring prosecutors’ supplementary investigative authority.
Police reform is necessary, but it cannot substitute for checks and balances within the criminal justice system. If police are to wield substantially greater investigative power, the government must ensure that failures can be corrected before they cost more lives.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
