"63 Cases Unregistered or Deleted in System"…Investigation Results to Be Announced Today

[Anchor]

Police have secured statements from a police officer at the Jeju Western Police Station regarding why he falsely closed missing person cases. Out of 298 closed missing person cases, 63 were found to have been deleted from the system or never entered at all. The Jeju Provincial Police Agency will announce the investigation results today (Sept. 1).

This is reporter Jeong Jiyeon.

[Reporter]

Police officer Boo, affiliated with the Jeju Western Police Station who was arrested on the 25th, has reportedly spoken out about the reasons behind falsely closing the missing person cases.

National Office of Investigation Head Hong Seok-ki stated during a press briefing yesterday, "We are verifying whether Boo's statements regarding his motive for the crime are true."

Officer Boo is suspected of falsely closing a case by entering it as a "traffic accident fatality" in the system without checking on the safety of a missing person surnamed Jang, whose disappearance was reported on May 15, despite looking up Jang's mobile phone location seven times.

This was just two and a half hours after the missing person report was filed.

On July 2 as well, he checked the mobile phone location of a man in his 60s, but closed the case just about five hours after the report was received by entering false details stating, "He was reached and has no intention of committing suicide."

The man was found dead in Songdang-ri, Jeju City, where his mobile phone location had been tracked, 51 days after the missing person report was filed.

The number of missing person cases self-closed by Officer Boo since March of last year reaches 298, accounting for about 30 percent of all cases in Jeju.

Police recently confirmed that among these, 63 cases were either never entered into the missing person profiling system or were deleted.

The Jeju Provincial Police Agency will hold a briefing today to announce the results of the investigation so far.

Police explained that regarding the management and supervisory responsibilities of the command chain—which are currently being handled through internal audits—cases could be converted to formal investigations depending on the circumstances.

(Video Editing: Yu Mira, Design: Lee Gajin)

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