"We Can't Trust Police... We'll Find Them Ourselves": Vigilante Search Groups Emerging Everywhere

Today's first hot topic.

Distrust in police public authority is growing, fueled by recent incidents such as the falsely closed case in Jeju.

Consequently, there has been an increase in so-called social media search teams that directly share information about missing persons.

Thousands of posts containing personal details and the last known movements of unreturned women in major regions like Jeju are being shared on social media.

Advice has even emerged suggesting that when filing a missing person report, people should not rely solely on the police but also directly publicize the disappearance on social media.

Families of missing persons are even turning to private investigation agencies, willing to shoulder costs amounting to millions of won.

An official from a private detective agency stated, "Clients do report to the police first. However, because the police handle so many cases and processing is slow, many desperate individuals request our services to find their family members quickly, even if it costs a large sum of money."

Critics point out that this phenomenon is driven by a snowballing distrust of the police.

(Source: Seoul Shinmun, Screen capture: X (@creamsept))
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.