▲ Saeron / CEO Taeik Kim

Private detectives have finally been legalized in Korea. People who find it difficult to receive direct help from the police knock on the door of a detective agency for reasons such as finding a pet dog, finding a fraud suspect, collecting evidence of a spouse＊s infidelity, investigating reputation, and protecting one＊s personal safety.

As the market grows, corporate detective agencies with specialized equipment, manpower, networks, and systems are emerging. However, there is still no clear legislation on private detectives, so there are voices in the field that they are working on the blurry line between illegal and legal. Also, some people have been victimized by companies that are not properly qualified or verified.

Professionalism and quality detective services

Saeron is a company that offers professional private investigator services. Different from illegal investigator services, it provides conduct, reputation, and corporate investigations; legal evidence collection; search, tracking, and detection of missing family members, pets, and criminal suspects; protection from school, workplace, and domestic violence; stalking prevention; and voyeurism/bugging detection.

It was established in 2012 and re-launched as a private investigator firm in 2021 with highly experienced agents. Saeron has branches in Busan, Jeju, and Incheon as well as the Seoul headquarters for immediate response, and is equipped with metal detectors, bugging detectors, telescopic cameras, hidden camera detectors, motorcycles, and special vehicles to achieve good results for clients. 

The company has received more than 230 referrals in the last year alone and handles an average of 20 cases per month. The firm currently has 17 employees working in four teams, with four team leaders and three to four employees in each team.

Unlike other companies, Saeron’s policy is to meet with clients face-to-face to sign contracts and obtain non-disclosure agreements and powers of attorney. The company keeps its clients’ confidentiality strictly, deleting relevant information immediately to ensure security, and when it does find people, it verifies their identity by obtaining a family relationship check.

Saeron CEO Taeik Kim says “We’re working within the law. When it comes to locating people, it can be problematic if we just find anyone. If we can identify them correctly and prove the connection, we can proceed, but sometimes we can’t, so we ask for their consent first and arrange a meeting.”

The blurred lines of private investigators should be institutionalized and clarified!

South Korea has been able to register private investigators since 2020, but there are still many gaps in the law, says CEO Kim. “There is a lot of ambiguity about whether what we are doing is legal or illegal because there are no laws in place. If the law is institutionalized, it will give us more freedom to work in the private sector when collecting data.”

In Japan, private investigators are recognized as nationally certified, but in Korea, it is unclear whether the Ministry of Justice or the National Police Agency is in charge, and it is not managed by the state.

Kim says “By making the certification more difficult and authorizing it, it is expected to weed out the fringe detective agencies. If national accreditation is difficult, it can be managed by a committee.”

With 50 more detective departments opening in Korean universities, and the detective workforce and related industries growing, he believes that laws and systems for the detective industry should be established urgently.

Kim says “Clients need to choose an honest and trustworthy company so they don’t get stuck with additional charges or embarrassing surprises later. We hope that the Private Investigator Management Act will be passed by the National Assembly to establish an organized and trustworthy industry.”