"A Matter of Life and Death... Must Verify Missing Person's Condition in Person"

[Anchor]

In this incident, a police officer lied and closed a missing person case alone, yet there was no internal police system to prevent it. Criticisms are mounting that fundamental changes to the missing persons investigation system are urgently needed.

Reporter Kwon Min-kyu has the story.

[Reporter]

As the fallout from the Jang Mi-ran case grows, the Korean National Police Agency has announced measures to strengthen the processing procedures for missing person cases.

The plan is to introduce a dual-verification process where a mid-level manager, the head of the detective division, must directly approve the case disposition in the Missing Person Profiling System, which records missing persons information, in order to close a case.

However, experts point out that even with this system, there is no way to verify if the initial responder submits a false report, and that objective physical evidence should be submitted together starting from the initial report.

[Lee Woong-hyuk, Professor of Police Science at Konkuk University: "There needs to be a requirement to attach evidentiary materials confirming whether (the missing person) is safe. Since nothing changes even if an approval is given when the (practitioner) submits a false report..."]

In particular, they emphasize that if contact is made with a missing person, meeting them in person to verify their condition must be made mandatory in the manuals.

[Lee Gun-soo, Professor of Police Science at Baekseok University: "You have to face-to-face. You have to go and check why they disappeared. It has been wrong from the start. Missing person cases are about life. It is a battle against time and a matter of a human life."]

Experts note that if a missing person is an adult without disabilities, they are classified as a "runaway," making searches difficult, which makes the on-site judgment of the initial responder more crucial than anything else.

This is because while CCTV footage and other records can be checked for children, people with disabilities, or dementia patients under the Missing Children Act, related agencies will not cooperate for adults unless a warrant is secured first.

[Kwak Dae-kyung, Professor at Dongguk University's College of Police and Criminal Justice: "It is important to quickly and clearly identify the nature of an adult missing person case early on. Aspects of it remain ambiguous."]

Experts also emphasize that cases should actively review examples from developed countries that classify missing persons by risk level rather than age.

States like New Jersey in the U.S. classify missing persons with a high risk of injury or death as "high-risk missing persons," while Japan designates individuals with potential suicide risks as "specific missing persons" and handles missing person cases through active search methods.

(Video reporting: Bae Moon-san and Kim Yong-woo | Video editing: Kim Jong-tae | Design: Im Chan-hyuk)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.