South Korea's Special Judicial Police System began in 1956 with the enactment of the Act on the Duties of Judicial Police Officers and Their Scope of Duties(abbreviated as the Judicial Police Duties Act). As of the end of December 2023, a total of 20,600 special judicial police officers were listed in press releases from 35 central administrative agencies and local governments. This paper analyzes the current status of the Jeju Autonomous Police Corps' Special Judicial Police System and offers future-oriented recommendations. Most special judicial police agencies have their heads nominate special judicial police officers from among their own civil servants, who are then appointed by the chief prosecutor of the competent prosecutor's office. However, the Jeju Autonomous Police Corps' Special Judicial Police Officers (hereinafter referred to as “Special Judicial Police Officers”) are statutory special judicial police officers under the Jeju Special Act, and do not require separate appointment by the prosecution. They primarily work in areas closely related to community safety, such as forestry, the environment, and tourism. The scope of investigative duties under the Jeju Autonomous Police Corps' Special Judicial Police System, implemented in 2006, has significantly expanded to 19 fields and 93 laws as of early 2025. Although the Jeju Special Judicial Police have achieved many achievements, they have yet to be granted the following four legal areas, making it difficult to crack down on new and emerging crimes. Therefore, to address this issue, urgent legal revisions are needed to include the addition of the phrase “crimes related to medical treatment” to the “Special Measures Act on the Crackdown on Health Crimes”(Article 6, Paragraph 18, Subparagraph B) of the Judicial Police Duties Act. Furthermore, Article 6, Paragraph 18-2(Infectious Disease Prevention Act), Article 6, Paragraph 36 (Passenger Vehicle Act), and Article 6, Paragraph 50(Three Real Estate Acts) of the Judicial Police Duties Act are also needed to address the scope of duties of autonomous police officers in Article 10. Furthermore, this paper presents seven future-oriented proposals for the Jeju Autonomous Police Corps' Special Judicial Police System, including expanding the scope of investigative duties of Jeju Autonomous Police Special Judicial Police officers.
Hyun Ki Shin (2025) studied this question.