Introduction
Have you heard of Sherlock Holmes? He is a fictional private detective who gained fame worldwide for solving mysteries. You may be surprised to hear that it is currently illegal in Korea to hire a private detective. Should the government legalize private detectives? Let’s see what our debaters think.



Constructive Debater 1 Henry
The government should legalize private detectives. Private detectives are trained to solve mysteries. Currently, if there is a crime, then the police are in charge of figuring out what happened. However, police officers have many other jobs to do. Some mysteries never get solved because the police do not have enough officers and equipment to solve every crime. This is why the government should legalize private detectives.



Constructive Debater 2 Ashley
The government should not legalize private detectives. First, hiring a private detective is too expensive. Only the richest citizens would be able to afford their services. Second, everyone must follow privacy laws, even when investigating a mystery. Private detectives would probably break the privacy laws because they are not part of a public institution. Therefore, they would feel less pressure to follow all of the laws.



Rebuttal Debater 1 Henry
How can you be sure that private detectives will not follow the privacy laws? You have no evidence to prove that. Also, I know that hiring a private detective is expensive. However, that is because private detectives offer a specialized service. Police officers often cannot provide the same service as private detectives. They do not have the time and resources. Private detectives would solve more crimes.



Rebuttal Debater 2 Ashley
Police officers may have many responsibilities. However, some police officers specialize in solving mysteries. Thus, they have the training, resources, and time to do so. That is why private detectives are unnecessary. Having the proper training for private investigators will be a hassle for the government to make sure that all of them apply legal rules and procedures of investigation.



Judge’s Comments
The winner of today’s debate is Henry. Ashley committed the fallacy of presumption. Debaters commit this fallacy when they make an assumption without evidence. Ashley said that, “Private detectives would probably break the privacy laws because they are not part of a public institution.” However, she has no proof!

Karen Lee