Discussion on establishing a reasonable role for the police : Focusing on criminal policy measures

In the past, the police was regarded as a guardian of the central government authority, rather than as a national agency that protected the lives, bodies, and property of the people. For this reason, despite being stipulated as an investigative agency like the prosecution under the Criminal Procedure Act, the police was not given any investigative authority and was unable to proceed with the investigation process in a cooperative and equal relationship with the prosecution. In other words, a hierarchical relationship was formed in which it obeyed instructions and orders of the prosecution during the investigation process. As a result, the presider in the investigation was the prosecution. However, as the police recognized the importance of protecting human rights of the people and the changes occurred in the police organization with both various efforts and self-purification. These changes resulted in emerging as a social issue that leaded to begin discussions on the distribution of authority between the prosecution and the police. Although it is the fact that the police did not have any investigative authority, but deals with most criminal cases, it has an important role of finding the actual truth through rapid investigation to protect the human rights of the people. These discussions, along with the efforts of police organizations, led to the revision of laws such as the Criminal Procedure Act and the Prosecutor's Office Act. As a result, the police has been granted the following powers: the right to initiate an investigation, the right to terminate the primary investigation, and the right to conduct an anti-communist investigation. According to that, the police has become the most powerful state institution since its creation. Nevertheless, in order for the police to conduct investigative procedures with independence as an investigative agency, the prosecution's authority must be limited to the right to prosecute and the authority to proceed with actual investigative procedures must be granted to the police. The purpose of this paper is to prepare a criminal policy plan for granting substantive investigative authority to the police for the purpose of realizing the general principle of the Criminal Procedure Act, which is discovery of the truth through rapid investigation in order to protect the human rights. It will present measures for the rational use of the powers granted to the police, furthermore, suggest the granting of authority, its necessity, and rational use measures for the police to fulfill its role and function in its relationship with the prosecution.