[Anchor]

It has been revealed that police missed the golden time after closing a missing person case involving a woman in her 30s in Jeju three months ago based on a false report that contact had been made. The police have decided to belatedly revise their missing person case handling procedures.

Reporter Jung Yong-gi from JIBS.

[Reporter]

The initial missing person report for 30-year-old Jang Mi-ran was closed in just over two hours.

Although the missing person report was received on the evening of May 15, the assigned police officer ended the case at around 9 p.m., stating that they had "made contact with Ms. Jang."

However, no record of a phone call between the two could be found.

[Boyfriend of missing person Jang Mi-ran (on the 19th): When I asked, 'Did you see her face in person, or did the substation staff see her?' they said, 'We made a phone call during the search and withdrew.']

Along with the false closure, the search was also halted.

Police searching around Hallim Port withdrew, and it was more than two months later when the family filed a report again.

In the meantime, a significant portion of nearby CCTV footage was deleted.

This incident exposed loopholes in the missing person handling system.

The assigned police officer alone was able to lift the missing status in the computer system.

[Lee Do-seon / Professor of Police Science at Hannam University: The fact that there was a vulnerability in internal controls regarding the case closure procedure itself is a major point of concern. It can undermine public trust in the police.]

The National Police Agency has decided to modify the nationwide missing person profiling system.

Moving forward, when an officer requests to lift a missing status, a "double-check" procedure will be introduced in which an administrator reviews the reason and verifies the facts before granting approval.

With the whereabouts of the missing person remaining unknown for over three months, criticism and calls for accountability are expected to grow further against the police for revealing major loopholes in handling missing person cases and coming up with belated improvement measures.

(Video Journalist: Kang Myung-chul, JIBS)

Jung Yong-gi, JIBS