More lay judge trials are making use of fully recorded interrogations ever since police adopted new guidelines to avoid coerced confessions, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
In fiscal 2016 ended in March, 2,324 cases subject to such trials had complete recordings of the interrogations, up by 759 from the year before, the NPA said.
Historically, the police have been notorious for their lack of transparency when it comes to extracting confessions in criminal investigations, and the authorities have been under pressure to address this by shedding light on what goes on behind closed doors.