The Jeju police officer accused of falsely closing missing-person cases deleted or failed to enter records not only for adults such as Jang Mi-ran, 37, but also for people protected under the Act on the Protection and Support of Missing Children, police said. The finding contradicts the officer's own account that he closed Jang's case because he had taken it lightly, assuming she was an adult.
According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency on the 2nd, the officer, a senior patrolman surnamed Boo, deleted or failed to enter 63 records on the management list of the missing-person profiling system. A police investigation confirmed that several of them involved children and others covered by the Missing Children Act.
Of the 63 cases, 15 were properly closed after local police quickly located the missing individuals. But investigators found that the officer had entered the management list records for those 15 cases and then deleted them at his own discretion.
The officer had earlier told investigators that he falsely closed Jang's case because the missing person was an ordinary adult, that he had taken the case lightly, and that he felt burdened by the amount of work required to hand over an unresolved case. In practice, however, he also altered management list records for people the Missing Children Act designates as subjects of protection.
Police believe the false closures stemmed from a combination of avoidance and a lack of responsibility. A police profiling analysis concluded that his motive was primarily negligence in his duties, driven by fatigue from accumulated workload and mounting responsibility.
Management list records may be deleted when a missing person is confirmed dead, and once deleted they cannot be retrieved. If such records are erased, police cannot review earlier case details when a surviving child, person with a disability or dementia patient goes missing again after returning home, making on-site search operations more difficult.
The Missing Children Act limits its scope to children under 18, people with disabilities including intellectual disabilities, and dementia patients. Unlike reports involving missing adults, these cases must be reported immediately to the head of the police station so that a full-scale search can begin. No one may use the records of those covered by the law without authorization.
The officer worked on the missing-persons team at Jeju West Police Station from March last year through July this year, closing 298 cases on his own authority. Of those, 141 involved reports concerning people protected under the Missing Children Act. Beyond the two false closures already uncovered, police have referred for investigation 10 additional cases of false closure and 15 cases of deleted management list records.
Jang's family, meanwhile, is preparing a claim for state compensation. The family is reviewing legal grounds for a damages suit against the government and the officer who filed the false closures.
