Police have decided not to forward the case of a police officer who was under investigation for destroying his son's smartphone, which contained evidence of an attempted illegal filming incident.
The Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency announced today (August 13) that they decided not to send Inspector A to prosecutors, stating, "Under the family privilege statute, Inspector A's evidence destruction charge cannot be punished." They added, "We conducted a broad investigation into whether there was any attempt to instigate the destruction of evidence, but could not confirm any related circumstances."
Inspector A is accused of breaking his son B's smartphone and throwing it away last May after learning that his son had attempted to secretly film parts of his homeroom teacher's body with the phone.
At the time, the investigation team at the Jeonju Wansan Police Station forwarded B to prosecutors on charges of attempted filming using cameras or other devices under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, based on the victimized teacher's testimony without recovering the missing phone.
Following the "Jang Yoon-gi case," the National Police Agency ordered a full-scale inspection of cases involving police family members, which raised suspicions regarding Inspector A's destruction of evidence. Consequently, the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency investigated him for evidence destruction.
Under family privilege laws, simple evidence destruction among relatives is exempt from punishment, whereas instigating evidence destruction can be punishable depending on the circumstances.
Police checked Inspector A's mobile phone, internal messenger logs, and the investigation team's call records, but explained that there were no circumstances indicating that fellow police officers helped destroy evidence or that Inspector A advised family members to destroy evidence.
However, the police determined that Inspector A acted inappropriately as a law enforcement officer and plan to subject him to disciplinary action.
Police stated, "We conducted the investigation so that no suspicions remain regarding this matter," adding, "Considering that disposing of his son's mobile phone was a highly inappropriate act for a police officer and subject to heavy criticism, we plan to take strict disciplinary action."
Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Choi Gang-san | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
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