▲ Police Officer A, accused of falsely closing missing persons cases
A police officer in Jeju accused of falsely closing missing persons cases has been indicted and detained.
Following the prosecution's investigation, additional charges have been filed, including violations of the Act on the Promotion of Electronicization of Criminal Justice Procedures, as well as the creation and uttering of false official documents.
The Jeju District Prosecutors' Office announced today (September 18) that it has indicted and detained Police Officer A (34), formerly of the Missing Persons Investigation Team at the Jeju Western Police Station, on charges including the falsification of electronic and other official records.
Officer A is accused of closing cases without taking any measures to locate the missing persons, despite receiving missing persons reports for a woman in her 30s surnamed Chang on May 15 and a man in his 60s surnamed Park on July 2. He allegedly entered false information into the 112 emergency report processing system and the missing persons profiling system as if he had contacted the missing individuals.
He is also accused of drafting internal reports stating that he had contacted the missing individuals when he had not, and printing and handing them over to his superiors.
The prosecution stated, "Officer A falsely closed the cases out of a burden to report to superiors and hand over cases to colleagues if missing persons cases remained unclosed, and we confirmed that supervision and command by superiors were not properly carried out during this process."
They also explained, "We uncovered that the police's missing persons handling system operated poorly, such as the 'joint review'—conducted under the supervision of the head of the criminal division to determine whether there is a connection to a crime for missing persons not found within 12 hours of receiving a report—being conducted in a perfunctory manner, and failures to respond in a timely manner to requests from missing persons' families to locate them."
Furthermore, the prosecution stated that it additionally uncovered Officer A's acts of falsely drafting and uttering internal reports, leading to additional charges of creating false official documents, and applied violations of the Act on the Promotion of Electronicization of Criminal Justice Procedures for entering false information into the 112 emergency report processing system and the missing persons profiling system.
After receiving the case from the police on September 1 with a dedicated investigation team led by the head of Criminal Division 1 as the lead prosecutor, the prosecution conducted supplementary investigations, including search and seizures at the Korean National Police Agency, the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, and the Jeju Western Police Station, re-forensic analysis of the defendant's mobile phone, questioning of the defendant, and witness interviews of superiors, colleagues, and bereaved family members.
The prosecution stated, "Through this investigation, we confirmed that the police's missing persons handling system, which is directly linked to the lives and safety of citizens, has been generally operated in a substandard manner," adding, "We will do our utmost to prevent the burying of cases by investigative agencies even after the transition to the prosecution service office."
Meanwhile, the Jeju Provincial Police Agency previously conducted a full inspection of 298 cases closed by Officer A while working on the missing persons team from March of last year to July of this year, and is investigating 25 additional inappropriate cases identified, such as false closures or deletion from the missing persons profiling management list.
In addition, preliminary investigations are currently underway for a total of eight individuals, including the former head of the criminal division at the Jeju Western Police Station, the missing persons team leader, and team members, on charges including dereliction of duty.
They were placed under investigation following a request for investigation by the police internal inspection department, and all have been subjected to personnel actions such as being placed on standby.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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