An investigator at the criminal division of a regional prosecutors' office recently spotted signs of additional crimes by a fraud suspect, identified as A, while conducting supplementary investigation. The suspected crimes were separate from those referred by police with a recommendation for indictment. The investigator immediately reported the findings to the prosecutor, but the response was markedly different from usual: "We need to clear the backlog of unresolved cases first." The message was that while uncovering and directly investigating additional crimes matters, resolving pending cases for the sake of victim relief takes priority.
"Just a few years ago, whenever signs of additional crimes by a suspect were detected, we immediately launched direct investigations including search-and-seizure operations and account tracing, but these days we don't have the capacity," the investigator said. "Even handling the unresolved cases alone requires daily overtime, so I'm deliberating whether to switch to a direct investigation."
As unresolved cases surge over time, prosecutors face mounting investigative burdens, including excessive workloads. Even when signs of additional crimes surface during supplementary investigations of cases referred by police, prosecutors hesitate to launch new investigations on their own initiative.
According to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 26th, the number of suspects in unresolved cases at the prosecution reached 188,625 as of March this year. Given that the figure stood at 157,558 at the end of last year, more than 30,000 suspects were added to the backlog in just three months. The backlog of public welfare-related cases such as fraud is growing particularly fast. As of March, suspects in unresolved fraud cases numbered 40,843, up more than 6,000 from last year's 34,586. Suspects in unresolved violence and sexual violence cases also rose to 16,242 and 5,112, respectively, from 13,035 and 4,292 at the end of last year.
The concern is that unresolved cases could grow further due to the departure of investigative personnel through resignations, including prosecutors, and the shortage of investigators caused by dispatches to various special counsel teams. Some in the legal community warn of a distorted pattern of "detected but uninvestigated" cases being buried, saying, "With no investigative capacity left, it has become difficult to switch to direct investigations even after detecting signs of additional crimes."
"A few years ago, when supplementary investigations of cases referred by police uncovered signs of additional crimes, we immediately switched to direct investigation and moved on to search-and-seizure operations and account tracing, but that's no longer possible," said one attorney with a prosecutorial background. "Under the current structure, when one person resigns or is dispatched elsewhere, those who remain have to take on the cases, so some are even making resigned remarks like, 'Don't start any new work unnecessarily.'" He added, "Prosecutors can request supplementary investigations from police or send materials as investigation references, but police are also handling many cases, so it can take a long time. Since these involve the same suspect and the cases would eventually need to be consolidated, the original unresolved investigation could drag on even longer, making the decision difficult." Both prosecutors and police face heavy workloads, and with the process of "requesting supplementary investigation (or sending reference materials) → police investigation → case consolidation" dragging on, handling of existing unresolved cases could also be delayed. This makes it difficult for prosecutors to decide between directly launching their own investigation or requesting supplementary police investigation even when signs of additional crimes emerge. Indeed, according to the National Police Agency, the number of cases per police officer (based on filings) stands at 133.8, surging 32.7% over four years. The figure was just 100.8 in 2021, but rose to 110.4 in 2023 and 127.7 in 2024, climbing sharply each year.
"The rapidly increasing backlog of unresolved prosecution cases could be transferred not only to police but also to the Major Crimes Investigation Agency (MCIA) after the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is abolished in October," said a legal source familiar with investigative agencies. "Though the Public Prosecution Office is supposed to investigate for 90 days, both the scope of investigation and the duration are limited, so unresolved cases could become a major burden for both police and the newly launched MCIA going forward." He added, "Some are even raising concerns that the nation's investigative ecosystem is collapsing. As a new criminal-judicial system takes effect after the abolition of the prosecutors' office, meticulous 'restructuring' must be carried out to minimize side effects such as investigative delays, growing backlogs, and buried cases."
150,000 criminals roaming the streets? My case swallowed by political special counsels — the shocking reality of collapsing public safety!
