What comes into your mind when you hear the term “private detectives”? For many, it may remind them of Sherlock Holmes, a shady character with a cloak tailing secret agents, or an intelligent loner looking to solve cases. Korea is seeking to legalize private detectives. However, will they be like the expectations of the public? Or will they simply mean a legalized form of a privacy disaster?
The occupation of private detectives has been illegal in Korea for some time now. It was first banned to prevent normal citizens from using investigative resources that should only be used by the legitimate government. However, there have been alternative services to fill up the absence of private detectives. So-called “service centers” and “detective agencies” are some businesses that have been taking the place of private detectives. They mainly provide services such as finding people who borrowed money and ran away or tail and follow people who are suspected of having illegitimate love affairs. Strictly speaking, their occupational nature makes them breach on privacy issues.
The congress is now trying to legally register these services. By doing so, they hope to gain a thorough understanding of these services and manage them so they do not go out of line. The government also seeks to recover legal stability that was lost when these services were secretly carried out even when private detectives were illegal.
However, will registering these service centers put an end to all privacy hazards and suddenly create a society with “law-abiding” private detectives? Even after private detectives are legalized, the jobs that they are required to do will stay more or less the same. This means that the same privacy hazards will exist. There is a possibility of privacy hazards becoming even more insecure. If private detectives are legalized, then it would mean some level of investigation and powers that are currently only granted to governmental authorities would be granted to private detectives. It may make it even more convenient for them to invade privacy or intrude upon the lives of others with legal justifications.
Referring back to the original purpose of having private detectives, some may argue that private detectives are actually necessary in society. While the name of private detectives was tainted due to the shady work that their clients have required them to do, there are cases where investigative skills and resources are needed, and sometimes these cases are not appropriate for governmental agencies to handle, such as finding a missing old friend. In these cases, it is true that private detectives may actually be needed. However, compared to the legal liabilities and security risks exposed through this policy, the losses far outweigh the benefits.
Korea can resort to temporary measures while they settle security issues. Korea has a relatively well-established database of its citizens and its national territory is not large. Most of the jobs, illegal or not, done by private detectives are finding people. For the time being, establishing an annex to the government agency to deal with issues that would usually be dealt by private detectives may serve as a temporary relief to this situation.
There are questions that needs to be asked about a policy. Is the policy feasible? Do the benefits outweigh the liabilities or costs? Is the policy necessary? Currently, this policy to legalize the occupation of private detectives has more liabilities than benefits. Legalizing the occupation itself may be possible but coping with its consequences may be a different story. We do not know for now whether this law will be voted in by out members of congress. However, one thing is sure. Korea is not ready for private detectives.
