Junior officers can no longer interrogate suspects alone under new police rules

The Korean National Police Agency has distributed new guidelines to police stations nationwide tightening procedures for suspect interrogations conducted by officers below inspector rank, requiring that such questioning be carried out under the direct supervision of an inspector or higher. The move is aimed at protecting suspects' rights, but officers on the ground warn the changes could increase their workload given the limited number of inspector-level investigators available.

According to police, the updated investigative procedures — including rules on suspect interrogations — were distributed to all police stations this month to coincide with the entry into force of revised provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and investigative guidelines. The new standards are already in effect.

Under the current Code of Criminal Procedure, officers of inspector rank and above are classified as "judicial police officers" — the principal investigators — while sergeants, corporals and constables are classified as "assistant judicial police officers," who play a supporting role. The revised code and investigative guidelines took effect Oct. 2, prompting police to overhaul frontline investigative procedures accordingly.

Under the new guidelines, when an assistant judicial police officer conducts a suspect interrogation, a judicial police officer of inspector rank or above must review the procedural propriety before the questioning begins. The supervising officer must also personally review the full written statement before the interrogation concludes and verify that proper procedures were followed — including informing the suspect of the right to remain silent, the right to legal counsel, and the right to review and request changes to the statement.

The name of the supervising judicial police officer must be recorded in the statement and signed. Interrogations conducted solely by assistant judicial police officers — with one serving as the examiner and another as a witness — are no longer permitted.

The head of the police agency's investigative structure reform team said assistant judicial police officers may still prepare suspect interrogation statements under the revised investigative guidelines, but must do so under the direct supervision of a judicial police officer. "We have updated the interrogation statement forms accordingly and distributed the new operational guidelines to all frontline units," the official said.

Frontline units are already adjusting their staffing to comply with the changed procedures. The head of the investigations division at a Seoul police station said officers have no option but to follow the new guidelines — having a judicial police officer present and a team leader in command. "If procedures are not followed, the evidentiary value of the statement could be called into question, so there is really no choice," the official said.

A particular concern is interrogations conducted outside the police station. Inside the station, officers can ask an inspector from another team to be present, but off-site questioning — such as visits to prisons — requires an inspector or higher to travel along. "Inside the office, we can probably manage the staffing somehow," the division head said, "but when we go out for external interrogations, an inspector or above has to be there, and that part worries me a little."

Some investigative teams face an even greater staffing challenge because of the small number of judicial police officers available to take on supervisory duties. According to the police agency, judicial police officers of inspector rank or above accounted for about 54 percent of the total 36,823 investigators in the second half of last year, while assistant judicial police officers of sergeant rank or below made up about 46 percent. A police officer in Gangwon Province said most investigative teams have only one judicial police officer — the team leader — with just one or two teams having a deputy team leader as well. "When the team leader is away, we are told to seek supervision from another team leader or the investigative support team leader, but I worry whether that will be of real practical help if they haven't done investigative work for long," the officer said.

At the national audit of the police agency on Monday, concerns were also raised about a shortage of investigative personnel and a decline in expertise. Acting Commissioner General Kim Jong-cheol said the agency had added more than 4,000 investigators this year and was also running specialist training programs and mid-career recruitment drives.

A police agency official acknowledged that while officers of inspector rank and above are not a small group within the organization, they are not deployed in sufficient numbers across investigative units. "There is a gap between the current rank-based staffing structure, the personnel assigned to investigative divisions, and the legal framework," the official said.

Against this backdrop, there is growing discussion about expanding the definition of judicial police officer from the current threshold of inspector rank to include sergeants. In materials recently submitted to the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, the police agency said it considers it "desirable to expand the scope of judicial police officers under the Code of Criminal Procedure to include sergeants, equivalent to Grade 7."

Extending judicial police officer status to sergeants would distribute the supervisory burden currently concentrated among inspectors and above. "It would make things easier workwise," one investigator said.

Among frontline officers, however, there is also discontent over the prospect of taking on greater responsibility without any change in rank or pay. An inspector surnamed A at a Seoul police station said some colleagues had initially hoped the change would mean more promotion slots for inspectors, but were now reading it as a push to have sergeants take on judicial police officer duties without the corresponding advancement. "Internally, people are saying this just means more responsibility without any promotion," the officer said.

Inspector B, who handles investigative work on the front line, said inspectors had earned their judicial police officer authority by studying for and passing promotion exams. "If sergeants are simply given the same authority outright, that could feel jarring," the officer said.