Han Dong-hoon: "All CCTV footage in Jeju missing person case deleted... police requested access two months later"

Regarding the case of a 37-year-old missing person surnamed Jang in Jeju, all 118 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras near the estimated disappearance site were completely deleted in mid-June, Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said on the 23rd.

According to data submitted to lawmaker Han by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, none of the CCTV footage from the time of the disappearance remained on a total of 118 cameras, which included 111 crime-prevention CCTV cameras in the Hallim-eup area where Jang vanished and 7 traffic information collection cameras operated by the Jeju Provincial Autonomous Police Corps' Traffic Information Center.

Footage from May 12 to May 20, which includes the estimated date of disappearance (May 13), was found to be entirely missing.

The dates of deletion were confirmed to be between June 11 and June 19.

Jeju Province responded to lawmaker Han's office that this was an automatic deletion.

The explanation was that the retention period for the 118 CCTV cameras is 30 days, and the files were automatically erased once the period expired.

Police belatedly attempted to secure the footage, but it was long after the retention period had expired.

Lawmaker Han found that the official request document sent by the Jeju Western Police Station to Jeju Province for access to the crime-prevention CCTV footage was only dispatched on the 19th.

This was 98 days after the estimated date of disappearance, 96 days after the initial report (May 15), and 61 days after the footage was completely deleted (June 19).

Lawmaker Han pointed out, "The CCTV footage, which could have been a clue to gauge the whereabouts of the missing person Jang in Jeju, disappeared due to the police closing the case," adding, "At the time of the initial report on May 15, all footage from the 118 cameras was preserved, meaning it could have been sufficiently secured."

He went on to criticize, "The criminal justice system is not designed on the premise that all investigators will be competent and diligent. Because of those limitations, dual and triple safeguards were put in place, one of which was the supplementary investigation authority. The Democratic Party removed that safeguard without an alternative. In the end, the safeguard to filter out shoddy initial investigations disappeared, and the price was paid by the victim and their family."
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.