Discussion on the rational role of the police : Focusing on the right to investigate espionage activities
Authors:   Korea Safety Culture Society, Park Ho Hyun 
Published: November 2024

The police of past obeyed the government's orders regardless of whether they are legal or illegal by passing through the Japanese colonial period, the US military government, and the military dictatorship, rather than protecting people's lives, bodies, and property which is its most important mission. However, a change of the times on the development of democracy leaded people to recognize that nothing is more important than protecting the people's human rights. The police also realized that it must change itself, and this led to the organization's self-purification. Through this, the police has changed better. The police's efforts to change were not limited to exerting coercive power over the people, but expanded to a role as a volunteer police that serves the people. Nonetheless the police is clearly stated as an investigative agency under the Criminal Procedure Act, it had to obey the prosecutor's orders without being granted any authority by being formed as a 'top-down' relationship, even though it was in charge of most criminal cases. However, the investigative procedure for protecting the people’s human rights must be swift, and the discovery of the truth must be made rapidly. This focused on the ‘coordination of investigative authority’ between the police and the prosecution, which requires distributing the authority monopolized by the prosecutors to the police, and proposed measures to enable the police to fulfill their role and function as a practical investigative agency by exerciseing various granted authority. In the end, these efforts led to the revision of the Criminal Procedure Act, the Prosecutors’Office Act, and the National Intelligence Service Act. As a result, the police was granted the authority to initiate investigations, the authority to conclude primary investigations, and the authority to investigate espionage activities, making it the most powerful state agency since its establishment. However, in the reality where the police handle most criminal cases, granting the authority to initiate investigations and conclude primary investigations can be considered meaningful, but there are concerns raised by the public about transferring the authority to investigate espionage activities, which had been handled by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Agency for National Security Planning, and the National Intelligence Service for 60 years to the police. With the revision of the National Intelligence Service Act, the espionage activities investigation authority, which had a three-year grace period, was transferred to the police as of January 1, 2024. As a result, the espionage activities investigation authority became entirely the police's authority. Therefore, rather than just making concerns, we should provide various supports so that the police can do their utmost to establish the constitutional order of the country and protect national security. Therefore, this study is for establishing policy measures so that the police can fulfill their reasonable role and function as a espionage activities investigation agency.