Seoul:The newly established Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA) may soon face jurisdictional challenges with the police due to unclear boundaries between their investigative roles, observers noted on Thursday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the SCIA was launched at the beginning of this month following a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act. This revision has dismantled the previous prosecution system, limiting the prosecution's role to indicting and maintaining indictments, while the right to investigate has been divided between the SCIA and the police. The SCIA is responsible for probing seven major crime categories, including corruption, business and economy, defense procurement, narcotics, national security, cybercrimes, and legal distortion.
However, ambiguities remain regarding the definition of a "major" crime and whether the SCIA should also investigate petty crimes related to these categories. The police, with their existing infrastructure and experience in handling such crimes, are unlikely to easily relinquish their investigative rights.
To address these concerns, the revised law mandates the formation of an Investigation Jurisdiction Coordination Committee, which will delineate the investigative scopes of the SCIA and the police. This committee, however, will not be established until after February 5, leaving the two agencies to engage in voluntary consultations to avoid conflicts for the next few months.
Ko Beom-seok, commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, emphasized the police's commitment to monitoring the situation closely to ensure that these jurisdictional conflicts do not materialize. He stated that the police would work collaboratively with the SCIA to reduce confusion following the agency's inception.