Amendment ***111 to the Criminal Procedure Law. Except for more than 20 clauses related to the trial system of the people's courts that are indirectly related to public security law enforcement, almost all other clauses are directly related to criminal law enforcement by public security organs. In general, the amendment will not affect the law enforcement of the public security organs, but will make the law enforcement activities of the public security organs more standardized in the context of the rule of law.
The introduction of special investigation measures has strengthened the investigation efforts to punish crimes. The increase in the types of evidence has enriched the means for investigation agencies to ascertain criminal facts. These regulations make the investigation activities of public security organs more powerful and standardized.
The new Criminal Procedure Law does put some pressure on the public security organs in handling cases, but it will not bring about fundamental changes in the way they handle cases. This revision of the law places equal emphasis on authorization and regulation for public security agencies. Almost every article embodies this feature. Even regulations that seem to restrict power are for the purpose of regulation, not for requirements but for protection.
The new Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that investigators must record and videotape the entire process of interrogating criminal suspects. Synchronous audio and video recording is not only a requirement for the police to handle cases, but also a kind of "protection". It is not uncommon for defendants to plead in court that they were tortured to extract confessions. In such cases, investigators are often unable to provide strong evidence that they were not tortured. With synchronized audio and video recording, this problem is expected to be solved. However, how to regulate the investigative behavior of criminal suspects within the "time gap" before interrogation has yet to be resolved. In addition, can the hardware of the public security agency meet the requirements of this system? How audio and video recordings will be used in court also needs to be clarified. Since the simultaneous audio and video recording takes a long time and the amount of information stored is large, the author maintains that "it is not necessary to play it all in court." If the defendant claims that he was tortured to extract a confession, he needs to indicate the approximate time and place, and the court only needs to play the video from this time period.
Because the new Criminal Procedure Law places greater emphasis on the review of the legality of evidence, it requires case investigators to strengthen their evidence awareness. It is necessary to collect evidence that proves the suspect's guilt or innocence, and also pay attention to collecting and fixing evidence in accordance with the law. The new Criminal Procedure Law clearly stipulates the "illegal evidence exclusion rule", which enables the declaratory provision of "no self-incrimination" to be implemented. The rule of excluding illegal evidence has actually been reflected in the 2010 "Two Evidence Provisions", but there are no typical cases in practice so far. The effect of this important provision in practice has yet to be tested.
The new Criminal Procedure Law has modified the defense system, especially the intervention of lawyers as defenders in the investigation stage, which has also had a direct impact on public security law enforcement. The modifications to the defense system in the new Criminal Procedure Law have made the role of lawyers more and more important. Provisions for direct contact between lawyers and case investigators are everywhere in the new Criminal Procedure Law. Meetings between lawyers and case managers cannot be prevented. In this case, should the public security organs set up a special department to receive lawyers to comply with the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Law? Public security organs should enhance their awareness of supporting lawyers in practicing law.