Police Officer Falsely Claims 'Traffic Accident Death' to Close Missing Person Case... Four Command Line Officials Suspended

[Anchor]

It has been revealed that a police officer at the Jeju Seobu Police Station, who falsely claimed he had made contact with Jang Mi-ran, entered false information into the internal system stating that Jang had died in a traffic accident before closing the case. The National Police Agency has placed four officials in the missing persons case command line, ranging from the missing persons team leader to the police chief, on standby and launched an internal inspection.

Our first report today (the 26th) is by reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan.

[Reporter]

The missing persons report for Jang Mi-ran was received by the police at 6:43 PM on May 15.

Police Officer Bu, assigned to Jang's missing person case at the Jeju Seobu Police Station, closed the case just 2 hours and 33 minutes later at 9:16 PM.

As a result, the police search was terminated after only two and a half hours.

[Jang Mi-ran's family member (on the 19th): After tracking her location, the police told us, 'The missing person does not want to talk,' and 'She asked not to be found....']

It was revealed that after giving false explanations to Jang's romantic partner who filed the report, Officer Bu entered into the internal police system that Jang had died in a traffic accident.

Under the police Missing Persons Profiling System, reasons for closing a case are largely divided into three categories: death, location found, and voluntary return. Officer Bu classified it as 'death,' specifically under the subcategory of 'traffic accident death.'

When an assigned police officer inputs that a missing person has 'died' into the system, the case is closed and subsequently excluded from management targets.

The police believe that Officer Bu exploited the fact that entering 'death' automatically closes the case in the system, fabricating the reason as a 'traffic accident death.'

Officer Bu also falsely entered that 'the man's location was found' in a missing person case involving a man in his 60s received last month, closing that case in a similar manner.

The National Police Agency has taken disciplinary action by placing four members of the command line related to Officer Bu's false closure of missing person cases—including the current and former chiefs of the Jeju Seobu Police Station, the head of the criminal investigation division, and the missing persons team leader—on standby. The agency plans to uncover the full truth behind the case handling process through a massive inspection of these individuals.

(Video by Kang Myung-cheol / JIBS, Video Editing by Park Ji-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.