A Study on the Effective Investigation Method of Cold Case

Abstract

In recent years, the increasingly wide-ranging and advanced pattern is a characteristic that is prominent not only in science and technology but also in violent crimes. Accordingly, investigative agencies such as the police are making all-out efforts to discover substantive truths and arrest criminals by introducing various investigative techniques and systems based on technical theories. However, in the case of cold cases that are more than 10 years old among violent cases, there are problems such as preservation of evidence and loss of investigation records, and representative cases that can no longer be investigated due to past statute of limitations have recently become an issue. The police have created a department in charge of cold cases at each local police agency and actively introduced scientific investigation techniques to detect criminals and solve cases, resulting in remarkable results. Examples include the murder of a Guro pub and the murder of a bank robber in Daejeon. In order to solve the cold case, a clear definition of the cold case and a dedicated team to solve the case are needed, but each local police agency still works as a temporary organization rather than a dedicated organization, so it is urgent to establish a more stable organizational system. In addition, there were system problems such as insufficient cooperative investigation with other agencies and difficulty in information sharing, criticism of the investigation as a show-type investigation by focusing investigators on cases where people are focused attention, and lack of expertise due to limited investigation resources. Accordingly, it is necessary to review the introduction of specialized investigators in cold cases in developed countries and actively utilize the introduction of dedicated investigation teams through permanent organizations and the introduction of professional investigator certification systems to expand cold case cooperation and efficiently operate crime analysis systems. Therefore, this study objectively selected important violent crime cases rather than 100% resolution of all cold case cases, and sought efficient investigation measures to focus on high-level investigative power as at the beginning of the case until the case is resolved.